The Boys are Here.

The twins arrived Saturday afternoon. Everyone is healthy, happy and at home now. MDH was first and weighed in a 6.8 lbs, while his brother, BPH, popped out 2 minutes later with a weight of 7.5 lbs. Here are their first published photos. MDH wouldn't open his eyes for me but BPH was very photogenic, especially while dad was holding him. Good luck to mom and dad.









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The Spirits of Christmas

Here are some photos of my nieces from Christmas.










I am trying to take more photos of CEA since we have so many of CMA. CEA just started cheesing it up for the camera over Christmas, we may have created a monster. CMA looks very excited for dinner, she had me put her in her seat about 10 minutes before were ready, then she didn't even eat much. It was fun spoiling them for Christmas, good thing as an aunt, spoiling isn't restricted to just December. For more pictures of the girls check out my sister's blog. Click the link Armstrong's Happy Pines on the left side.

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Christmas means...

...something different to everyone. Brilliant statement, right. To some it is about religion, others time off but to most it is about getting together with people that you love and spending time with them. This Christmas has been different for me since I don't have the restraints of work holidays to control my time. My sister, the girls and I came over to Ukiah on Thursday to see our parents. Getting two young kids ready to go early in the morning is quite a feat but we got out exactly on time. As expected both parents called to check up on us while making the drive, we made the requisite feeding stop for the eight month old and made it in time for lunch with dad. For the last 3 days we have bounced around having meals, a glass of wine or opening gifts.

The best part of Christmas now is watching my parents spoil my nieces. CMA wants "birthday cake" all the time now, she loves the sweets but doesn't get them that often but a grandpa's job is to indulge so she got blueberry cheesecake and 2 batches of cookies to decorate with frosting. Grandma, on the other hand, gave her a gigantic box of books and a beautiful, red velvet Christmas dress...nah, she's not spoiled. CEA got shorted this year, she only got held, hugged and kissed by anyone that could get their hands on her. Most of the gifts were for her and her sister to share, movies, a mini piano, books all of which big sister opened but right now she just wants the attention. Soon enough her first birthday will be here and all of the gifts will be for her.

Today we also had a great open house/party to celebrate my moms recovery, 14 months after a cancer diagnosis and almost as important, to show of the two granddaughters. It felt like all of Ukiah showed up to celebrate good health and we ate and drank to it. It was especially nice to see my mom's great friend that was our savior while mom was sick. She organized the friends so there was food, took her to doctor's appointments, doled out the medication and made it possible for my sister and I to continue on with our lives, 3 hours from mom. We owe her a lot. The other special visit was from my Aunt and Uncle that traveled from Reno just for the party. They just moved back to the west coast so we are expecting to spend more time with them, what better place to start then Christmas.

My dear readers are all wondering why I am telling about this 2 days before Christmas, how has all this wonderful giving, celebrating and spoiling happened before the actual event. Well, it is called adaptation. My sister's family has their own set of traditions to develop including Church, tree decorating on Christmas eve and time for just them, so tonight they headed back to their home. Life changes and traditions evolve and now Christmas to me means a few days late in December celebrating the past year and looking forward to the next one and it doesn't need to coincide with days off of work or the 24th/25th.

So that is the end of Christmas 2007, part one. I still have Christmas eve with dad's neighbors, Christmas Day with mom watching movies, meeting my 2 newest nephews (they should be arriving any minute now,) and a gigantic Christmas get together with my Bay Area family. (chaos is 11 adults, 5 kids, a 6 six month old and two infants...I can't wait.)

Merry Christmas...however and wherever you spend it.

Anniversary

Over the last weekend I passed a big milestone. A year ago Sunday, I "graduated" from ITMI with big dreams of being a Tour Director. During the two weeks of ITMI '06, I learned a bit, made very good friends and joined a fantastic network. A lot of what we learned was "common knowledge" to me but definitely wasn't for most. That may sound like I am patting myself on the back but it is really to point out that I was made to be a tour director. The past year has brought a lot of change for me and I have to say, there is nothing I regret. Of course, I still have some money in the bank right now. From what I can tell, I have been very successful compared to most from my class. There were a few of us that worked for the student tours and four of us went to Alaska but many have worked other stable jobs in addition to trying the touring experiment.

Though, I could never replace the friends I made in college and could barely survive with out them, I am grateful for the people I have met and friendships I have forged in my new career. During my time in Alaska I met many people but three wonderful ladies will be with me forever. Two of them have been to ITMI and though all three are at very different stages of their lives, from different parts of the country and have different aspirations, they are brilliant, beautiful and successful women that inspire me each time I talk to them.

I may still have to get a temp job but I believe that I will be in much better shape come this time next year. A big part of this business is contacts and persistence and the first comes mostly with time the second comes with desperation. Our Symposium conference is fast approaching and I intend to take full advantage of the contacts while in San Diego.

So after a year of change I look forward to next year, which while having less major change, will hopefully bring more opportunities and I remain optimistic that that will include something a little more exotic then Alaska.

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Ah, the young...so impressionable.

I spent the night at my nieces house (okay, it is actually my sister and brother-in-law's house, but really, who do you think I am there to visit) the other night and feel compelled to talk about the brilliance of CM (2+ yr old) a bit more. First off let me say I love the fact that she loves her Auntie so much and I am glad I get to spend all of this time with them since I disappear off to Alaska, Europe or some other place so often. While I was in Alaska, CM could find Alaska on a small globe I gave her right before I left. That is genius if you ask me. Anyway, lately while I have been at their house I have been able to use my computer, so it is out quite often. CM is fascinated by it and wants to look and play with it whenever she can. On my iGoogle home page, I have a live web cam of my favorite building in the world so I can watch the sunrise on it, the twinkling lights at night or just glimpse at it to think about being in Paris again. The first thing CM points to is the picture of my building and asks what it is. Right about then it starts twinkling and she oohs and aahs, that is the way to Auntie's heart. Then she says, in the most adorable voice, "more Eiffel Tower?" What else can I do but acquiesce. I go through the photos from the latest trip and every time she sees me she says "Auntie" and each time the Eiffel Tower is shown, she says "Eiffel Tower." I believe if I keep this up she may be as attached to France as I am. (Rubs hands together with and evil smile) Next step...teach her French.

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Leave a message.

I have changed the settings on the comments field. Anybody can leave a comment, you don't have to have a gmail account, though I highly recommend one. I keep hearing that people are reading but I have little proof, so I want to know. Leave me messages, ask me questions or give my ideas about what you want to hear about. Remember, I have a lot of time on my hands now. All I ask I that you sign your name, so I know who to thank.

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Always the Party of the Year.

It must be the Holidays! We had our first of the two big parties of the season. I spent much of Friday evening and Saturday assisting the fine chef, TD, in the kitchen putting together some great food. It is the 7th year of the DP Christmas party and it was a blast. There were about 50 people, lots of food and more then enough alcohol. For many years now, I have been TD's sous chef for the party, this year I got some assistance too. The W's came over early, so CF could have some food fun too. The menu was expansive, we would never have reached the 7:00 pm deadline if we didn't have the extra hands but in the end our menu was as follows: mushroom spread crostini, mini quesadillas, humus and pita chips, twice baked baby potatoes, bacon wrapped pickled watermelon rind, caprese skewers and shrimp spring rolls. I think that is the full list. It was all amazing, tons of work but totally rewarding especially for our amazing chef.

The H's made what is probably the last big excursion before the boys are born, JH looked great though but we can't wait for the boys to get here. Some friends that made the Ireland trip with us came out from Atlanta, it was great to see them. MW wore a dress she bought in Paris and I wore some fabulous tights. It is really the only time I dress up for the year and this year CF bought his wife, his date (me, yes there is story behind that) and the hostess flowers. There were a few casualties due the proficiency of the host's drink making abilities. In the end, everyone survived, though some took longer then others, and is ready to tackle next weekend.

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BARCELONA!!!

Writing that makes me think of the Freddie Mercury song from the '92 Olympics, how about you? Sorry this is so late but here goes. Barcelona was our vacation from our vacation. After a relatively easy transfer, flight and taxi ride, we arrived at our apartment. Eventually we were greeted by someone from the rental company. He didn't speak much English so we worked our way through the agreement and basic information about the city in broken Spanish, English and sign language. Finally, we cut him off from trying to tell us more, he left and we settled into our apartment. It was much smaller then our Paris one and didn't have basic necessities like we were used to but we made it our home for a week quite easily. The apartment was situated about 5 blocks from the Sagrada Familia, within walking distance of the heart of the older section of town and only 2 blocks from a Metro station. We had 5+ days in the city, so we could take our time seeing everything and fall into the swing of a Barcelona day. Most days we woke up between 8-9, fixed a breakfast including jamon (Spanish ham,) cheese, some fruit, cereal for mom and croissants for rest. Yes, I got to run to the patisserie and MW got to have Nutella every morning. After that we would head out for some wanderings, find some lunch and back home for a siesta. A few days we headed back out for some food, but most days we had dinner back at our little home. We enjoyed scouring our neighborhood for little shops for our supplies; we found a wine shop, yes it did just sell wine and cava, there were a few carniceria's and cheese shops and a great little bakery/sweets shop. Here are the highlights of trip.

Food - The food in Barcelona is very good, though from I can tell we really didn't eat Catalan food. We had paella one night, tapas for lunch most days and had a lot of fun shopping for the home cooked meals. We found a fantastic place for tapas on the first day, thanks to the research by the W's. It was so good we went back for our last meal out also. For our meal that took the place of Thanksgiving for us, CF & I ran to the carniceria and watched the butcher save the jamon right off the leg hanging over the counter. We both thought that it was a great experience, one you can't have around here. However, the most fun was shopping at the world famous La Boqueria market, right off La Rambla. We knew we wanted to make a big dinner but we had limited supplies at the apartment so it had to be relatively simple. We hit the market in the middle of the day, during siesta, so about half of the stalls were closed. We wandered around checking out the meat and fish, waiting for something to grab us. We narrowed it down to fish and then stood in front of one the many fish stalls to contemplate, thinking we should get something local or exotic. Finally, we decided that we all like salmon the best from the mystery fish we could translate. CF order 4 salmon steaks, so the young girl hauls this huge mostly whole salmon onto the chopping block an proceeds to hack of 4 huge steaks, it was quite a site. We ended up with a kilo of salmon. Then on to the veggies. The asparagus looked fantastic, so that was easy, we also picked up dill, cucumbers and tomato for a sauce for the salmon. We also picked up some prepared lentils as a side, some anchovies, olives and cheese. The market trip was an amazing experience and would be a fantastic way to shop but unfortunately, that is another thing that we can't do around here.

Architecture - Everyone knows about Gaudi, he was truly an inspired artist with an extreme eye for beauty. We visited his Parc Guell, a place designed to be a late 19th c. high class subdivision but it never got off the ground, only two houses were built and the owner eventually donated the property to the city for a park. It now contains many walking paths and the Gaudi museum. What Gaudi did leave behind are the bench park that functions as the roof for what would have been the open air market, two fanciful gate house and the famous tencadris iguana that is the second symbol of the city. The first symbol of the city is the Sagrada Familia, the unfinished cathedral designed by Gaudi. It is open for exploring and the admission is one of the sources of funding, they do not accept any government subsidies, hence it being under construction for 120 years and counting. The interior of this church is going to be amazing, very light and airy but the outside is what attracts so much attention. Three of the sides will each tell a story from Jesus' life, the nativity, the passion and the glory. Two of the sides are finished and the detail is great but the whimsy is what gives this building it's uniqueness. There are large, colorful fruit sculptures, pillars resting on the backs of turtles and a seated bassoonist. We also toured Casa Batlo, a home designed by Gaudi for a businessman. This is the building that people refer to as the dragon house, since the roof looks like scales and the windows look like a mouth with the bones of the eaten holding it open. Other then Gaudi's work, there are many other architecturally interesting buildings to behold as you wander about the city. All you need to do is look up.

That is Barcelona in a nutshell. For the pictures from the trip click the "Check the photos out!" link on the left.

The trip was really wonderful and I believe all of my hard work planning it paid off. I feel a little guilty not putting more work into the day to day itinerary suggestions but it was fun to make it a group effort. It was fun to share may favorite place with my friends and more fun to explore someplace new with them. I will say that the exchange rate really hurt me though. I tried not to take it into consideration too much and have a good time but looking at the depleted bank account makes me wonder if that was a good idea. Europe may be off the docket for vacation next year, maybe somewhere south of the equator with a more favorable exchange rate.

Thanks for reading.

Quote of the Day.

"Most nomads don't have this many keys." - me