Round The Ball: Lent – 2009

You might be wondering what October 31st is like here. We were curious too, and had received some strange commentary from Jesse about something that was happening at school — but with no note home from the teachers, we were clueless. Today when I walked J to school I stashed is famous Winne-the-Pooh costume in the bottom of Luci’s stroller just in case. As it turns out, it being a religious school and all, they weren’t doing a single thing about Halloween. No way!

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On top of it, the Bangladeshi folks around us don’t seem much into it all either — so we’re missing the wild and crazy San Francisco Halloween, where the adults get into the act even more than the kids do. At first we thought about not even mentioning the day to our kids at all — but by the end of the evening we couldn’t resist donning our usual get-ups (same thing we were all last year) and heading off to the Hayes’ for a brief, and apparently American-style, Halloween party with John, Deanna and the girls. (Thank God for team!)

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The kids had a great time wearing their costumes, we did a little candy-hunt (sort-of an Easter-egg hunt meets Trick-or-Treat game), and had a few good laughs. Deanna took all the pictures this time around, so I don’t have any to share yet.

Okay, okay, so I didn’t write for a few weeks. I’m not sure what happened there . . . just sort of burned out on the whole thing and then, well, the internet arrived at our house and I kinda went to work!  I’ve got a few yet to be born posts still on the horizon for you, so hang tight.  And, truly, I apologize for the absence.  Have I lost all my readers now?  All two of you?

And now to play the sympathy vote . . . I woke up Monday morning to a computer that could turn on, but none of my programs or documents would open. After spending most of my morning trying to figure out what the problem was — and a couple of abortive attempts at repairing it, I realized it was probably a hardware issue and headed down to the Mac store here in London.

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Yes, yes, it turns out it was a failed hard-drive — which is now being replaced with a brand new one. Yes, that means I lost most of what was on there (but everything had been completely backed up until August, thanks to my good friend Tim back in San Francisco.) I was able to save our recent photos and my work email. No, it won’t cost me anything (thanks to AppleCare, an amazing 3-year parts and service warranty that was still in effect). Yes, it means my computer is in the hospital with quadruple-bypass surgery for the next week. Yes, that means I’m sharing a computer with Pam (which also doubles as our kids’ TV at present. So, that’s just how it goes.

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All in all, it could have been TONS worse. Majorly inconvenient, as I lost most of Monday dealing with it and don’t have a computer to work on in preparation for this weekend, but these things happen. Just glad for simple things (which are really first-rate luxuries) like being in a city with a Mac store, having a second computer around the house, and being able to spare our new London pics.

Hey folks, click here for last weeks pictures!

One thing we COULDN’T live without (see entry below)  was a connection to the outside world.  I’m not sure why it took so long (it’s a long story), but our phone line finally went live yesterday.  I’ll be honest: when I plugged our phone into the socket and heard the sweet, sweet sound of a live dial-tone on the other end, I nearly shed a tear.  You should have seen the look on all four of our faces when the phone actually rang for the first time.  (Thanks, Papa Dan and Grandma Visser for being our first two callers!)

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Needless to say, it’s been waaay too long since we’ve conversed with our San Francisco friends and extended families.  The radio silence served its purpose in bonding a bit with our new neighborhood and team, but the dial-tone . . . and a telephone ringing, are wonderful sounds in deed!

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Now, to get the internet connection working . . .