Definition of cozy

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O’Christmas Dog

Tevez really likes all the Christmas lights.  He likes to nap under the tree.

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Christmas Light Blues

For the last ten years or so, petite white fairy lights have been been adorning our Christmas tree. I do think they are pretty but I am ready to embrace color on my tree. Who am I kidding, I have been persuaded by Georgie to go for a little color this year and I have to say I am pleased with the outcome.

Big times at the O’Connell house during the Holidays

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This could be a full time job for me

I believe in Santa Claus

and God has a sense of humor.

Happy Christmas Dutch People

Today is the Eve of Saint Nicolas.  Its the day that kids in the Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Germany put their shoes out at night hoping that Saint  Nicholas will leave presents for them.  It all depends if they have been good.  They might get sticks, coal or even worse, kidnapped.

I know this because I have two good frieds that are Dutch.  My best friend here in Fairfield County and a good friend from our time in Buenos Aires are both Dutch.  It either says that  our common love for chocolate, coffee, cheese and children brought us together, that or that the Dutch are everywhere…

I am also well versed in the not so subtle aspects of the Sinterklaas’s arrival  because David Sedaris wrote an hilarious essay about his introduction to the politically incorrect  Zwarte Pieten (numerous black dudes named Pete that do St. Nick’s dirty work).  I highly recommend giving his oral reading a listen and be grateful that, as a fan of Santa Claus, slavery wasn’t a possible outcome from being naughty.

Random Fall Photos

Technically there are three more weeks of autumn, but with Christmas upon us I thought I should get these photos  up while they are still barely relevant.

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Giving Thanks.

I am thankful for a lot.  Not the least being the mellow but festive weekend we had together.  No family.  Just us six.  Was a nice, low key way to enjoy our first Thanksgiving in years.

The turkey results were mixed.  While it was eaten in its entirety between Thursday’s feast and hash Friday night, my turkey suffered from a common affliction:  The breast meat was a bit dry while the dark meat was perfect.  I will be making adjustments next year.

There is so much else to be thankful for.  I am thankful for having my family together on this holiday as we make this our home again.  I think its working….

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Theatre Extravaganza

source:USAToday

One of the ways GM and I escape our children for an occasional 24 hours is to go into the city to catch a play.  Not a musical.  GM is not a musical kind of guy.  At all.  Thats fine with me.  I have been to a few of those and inevitably  their required sentimentality makes me a bit squirmish. Dont get me wrong, if I could sing and dance on Broadway it would be awesome.  I am just not the target audience for that vehicle.  I am too much of a cynic.

A good drama or satire on the other hand GM and I can enjoy together.  Especially  Shakespeare.  I bought tickets for GM’s birthday to see King Lear.  It happened to land on the same weekend as Georgie’s children’s theatre production of Mulan was debuting and closing .  It was going to be a cultured weekend of Sam Waterstone as King Lear and Georgie O’Connell as a hun.  King Lear was intense, desperate exhausting and 3 1/2 hours long. We thoroughly enjoyed it (despite horrible reviews we both thought it was excellent).   Mulan, while mercifully shorter, was equally intense, action packed, and  fun to watch cuz our daughter was on stage.  And whatever I missed the first time, I saw the second time I watched it.

Sam Waterston was a great Lear and Georgie was an exceptional hun.  It was a great weekend of theatre.

People in Hell, when they are bad, have to do Laundry

As I have mentioned ad nauseam, our life in Argentina afforded us many luxuries.  The luxury of time, of family and of people in your home helping lightening your load.  One of things I dreaded on my return wasn’t the cooking or general house keeping which for the last years had been done for us.  I love to cook and I do take pride in a tidy house.  What I dreaded returning to was the LAUNDRY.

LAUNDRY by far is one of the most unsatisfying tasks I can imagine.  It never ends, its boring, its frustrating (when trying to find matching socks) and most of all when combined with the above reasons the fact it takes an inordinate amount of time to do a load (gather, wash, dry, fold and put away) it becomes the biggest waste of necessary effort.  Kind of like…nothing is comparable.  It just plain sucks.

Given how I feel, you can now understand why when  I saw this, I had to laugh.  These are doll pajamas. Really???? Hope she doesn’t expect them ironed, because that definitely wont happen.

A look out my window

Its been an odd autumn.  The weather has been nutty with the hurricane and the early snow storm that both took place the last few months.  I hear the summer was super hot and wet.  So apparently that combination of weather factors has produced a rather anti-climatic foliage show this year. Its been dull.  Leaves have been turning brown and are withering on the branch.  The red maple that usually has spectacularly red leaves, has dropped its leaves before it changed.   Its a little disappointing given I have been looking forward to what is normally the most glorious time of year here in New England.  But even though I have seen a better show in the past, its pretty and smells crisp and makes it cozy to be inside on a cool morning.  And there is always next year….

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Halloween was a do-over

Wilton, Connecticut celebrated Halloween November 5th.  Last Monday, on  the real Halloween, we were under a foot of snow, trees and electric wires were down in the roads and most residences were still without power.   Spooky maybe, but not safe for trick or treaters.   So the town declared  November 5th Halloween 2011.    It was a little odd and random, doing it a week later, but it would have been too sad for my kids who have dreamed  for 8 years of going trick or treating in the U.S. if it had been cancelled altogether.

We got an extra week out of our Halloween decorations although one the pumpkins didnt make it as it got soft and some weird worms took residence.  The belated celebration also took a toll on whatever little enthusiasm Owen and Cal may have had for dressing up.  Owen was an argentine soccer fanatic, meaning he wore the Argie National shirt.  Cal was a “14 year old boy”.  Needless to say, no photos were taken of their efforts.

Georgie however is at her peak of Halloween dressing up.  She pondered long and hard before settling on her Native American costume.  She was not Pocahontas.  She was Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark’s indian guide. Sacajawea is also the name she gives at Starbucks when ordering a drink.

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The dogs are not allowed on the furniture

Here is his response to my request to get off the couch

Did not sign up for this

Its October 30th.  We spent two hours yesterday trying to get home from doing errands in our village.  Roads where bad with lots of unexpected heavy snow, bad drivers blocking the roads, and leaf filled trees heavy with snow causing lots of branches down in the already treacherous roads.  We had dinner plans with friends who live less than a mile away so we figured it was safe to go over for a meal.  It wasn’t. We spent the night at their house because of even more trees and branches down blocking all routes home.  There was a short conversation about us walking home, but the sound of cracking branches and electric boxes sparking made us think better of it.  We got home this morning to a yard full  of trees struggling under the weight of the heavy snow and their full head of leaves.  The good news is that we still had electricity.

We have had a cozy day full of sitting in front of a toasty fire, dogs and children playing in the snow, egg and sausage sandwiches, sunday football, bloodies, hot showers and lounging in our PJs.  And yes, they have already cancelled school for tomorrow!

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Might be worse than water boarding

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Not that I can personally attest to the fact.  I can only presume this is the case after I spent the morning with Owen and his 6th grade class at a local contempory art museum.  It was a well thought out and effective program in art appreciation.  What wasnt appreciated was the 15 minute each way hellride in a bus with 40 noisy kids.

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Baby

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feels like spring to me

Despite all indications, it feels like it should be spring.  I guess 8 years is long enough for a body to acclimate to opposite seasons. Its spring in BA right now.  But I am ok with it being fall.  I love autumn and it is one of the things that I missed most when I wasnt living here.  So even though it feels a bit odd being fall and all, I am relishing it. It still is my favorite season of the year.

Like a Monday morning

Its actually Tuesday.  Yesterday was a holiday for the kids.  Columbus Day.  When will we become more politically correct and abandon “Columbus Day” for “Explorers Day” or something else that dosent celebrate a specific asshole but the idea of opening up the world (by a bunch of unidentified assholes)?

I am sitting here this morning, outside, finally some nice weather, trying to come up with some menus for this week before I go to the market.  Usually a task I enjoy but I am having problems ignoring all the boxes and piles that remain after the big container dump last week (2 40′ shipping containers arrived last week).  After two days of unloading boxes and furniture, I unpacked everything from its box (save a dozen or so) for two days with the movers help, thank good.  About 50% of what made the trans-ecuatorial journey back to the states, I was happy to see.  About 45% of it I was like “what was I thinking?” and the other 5% was like the below.  ”What were the packers thinking?”More difficult to ignore, however, is Osa and her OCD tendencies. Here she is trying to get me to throw a stone mushroom (part of a past tenant’s stone animal vignette).  She is nuts.   The dogs arrived the week before last.  They are doing great and its feels right to have them back in the mix.  We dont have them trained on the invisible fence yet so they are house bound unless chaperoned.  Fortunately, they are not wonderers and have only run away when trailing deer into the woods, not the street which is my biggest fear.  They are not street or car smart.

Had a nice weekend.  The kids spent a fair amount of time in the pool because the Indian Summer weather we are experiencing.  We went apple picking in 82 degree heat.  We went to the car wash.  We watched Toddlers and Tiaras. I put stuff away, sometimes I just moved it around.  It was a big time.

Really?

Since returning I have had numerous conversations with people, some I know and some I dont, about living in Argentina.  These conversations are generally short and inevitably end in me thinking really?  I try hard not to be superior or condensending about possessing a world view but really?

Examples of some of the not so enlightened American prospective of Argentina:

They speak Brazilian, right?  (no that would be BRAZIL where they speak a language called Portuguese, they speak Spanish in Argentina)

Did you get use to the water down there? (Yes, after almost 8 years my digestive system eventually acclimated to the water that was processed through a 21st century sanitation and processing plant for me and the other 12 million people that live in Buenos Aires)

So, Argentina, its the opposite time of the day, is it 12 hours later or early? (It would be the seasons that are opposite between the northern and southern hemispheres, but bonus points for knowing that South America is in a different hemisphere)

Argentina, why did you have to go there? (cuz we are a bunch of kooks)

Did you go to any bullfights? (No, but when we travel to Spain, where you will find them, I will have no desire to see one)

Aren’t they communists? (Never communists, perhaps a unique flavor of socialism and they are honest in the depth of their institutional corruption)

Argentina, that’s cool, I love mexican food. (Me too, but wouldnt recommend going to Argentina for Mexican food.  I would go to Mexico, Texas, California or Colorado for that) 

I guess people asking me ignorant questions is better than not asking at all.  I realize that my past life in Argentina isn’t interesting to everyone, but it is about who I am, like how someones children’s excellent SAT scores are about them, apparently. That subject manages to dominate  conversations in all corners of Fairfield County.  So in the end I would rather field kind of lame questions from the genuinely curious to the “Argentina, how nice for you, my daughter did community service project teaching lacrosse to kids living on a landfill in Honduras”.