February 18, 2015: New Look

New look on the site today.  It has been many years since the theme for SGL was updated and I decided that it was time for something fresh.

Joe worked on his projector late last night and this morning but to no avail.  He did managed to eventually get the firmware update done as recommended by Epson but after he did that all it accomplished was to have the projector able to flash the red light indicating that the system had failed.  No news there.

We found out this morning that our niece Clara has influenza A.  So she is on medication and is quarantined at home.  Francesca spent the morning at the doctor’s with her and then was home all day.  We were not planning on going over there today anyway, but now we are trying to keep the kids from getting sick.  Luciana felt a little warm to Dominica who was unable to find a thermometer with which to really test her.  But I think that it is just her feeling that it must be so.  Luciana acted normally all day, no signs of her being sick at all.  I think that she is fine.

It is a little warmer here today.  Although back home is crazy cold.  Niagara Falls has begun to freeze over and Lake Erie is nearly all frozen.

Not a very eventful day for me.  At the house in the morning, mostly hanging out as everyone was home today.  Then at noon I started working at sat at the kitchen table all day as that is where I work.  For lunch Dominica made salads which were really good.

Liesl and Dominica got back into their school routine today.  Liesl finished her first math book!  We have to order the next one right away so that we will have it before we leave for Spain.  She loves her math class and cannot wait to get on to the next book.  It is so awesome that she loves math so much.

Liesl also had writing, reading and history today.  She is learning about “The Tomb Makers”, all about the tombs and mummification processes in ancient Egypt.

After her school work was done, Liesl watched Raiders of the Lost Ark in the living room with her aunt and uncle.  She really likes the Indiana Jones movies and is looking forward to watching more of them.  She is so funny: she states that she refuses to watch them out of order.  She wants to see them as they are meant to be.  It was very sad that she has to watch them in the living room now, she would have loved seeing them in the cinema.  That would have been perfect for her first time seeing the second and third films.  But now the cinema will not likely be working again until the summer after we are back from Spain.  So the girls are missing out of a month of getting to use it now.  I am not sure that they managed to see a single movie in it since we got down here.

The girls were great, playing with each other all afternoon and evening.  They put together new Playmobile boat sets that Liesl got for Christmas and they played with them extensively.

Brittany made eggplant parmesan for dinner which was amazing.  We had that and salad and watched an episode of The Simpsons which Liesl really enjoyed.  I am pretty sure that this was her first time every seeing The Simpsons.

After dinner I finished up with work around nine o’clock.  Then I wrote up a new article that I am hoping is able to go to press tomorrow.  Nothing like cutting it to the last minute every time!

We got the girls off to bed at ten.  They begged for me to sleep in their room with them.  They love it when we have slumber parties together just the three of us.

Dominica and I have been doing a lot of shopping for South American cruises as we are very excited about the possibility of doing a cruise between Valparaiso, Chile and Buenos Aires, Argentina for a fortnight next year.  We have always wanted to do this particular cruise and it looks like we might have the chance to take the girls on it now.  It would be a very long cruise, especially for Liesl, Luciana and me who have never been on any cruise at all before, but the amazing set of otherwise inaccessible destinations like the Falkland Islands, Tierra del Fuego and the Chilean Fjords make it really attractive.  Not to mention it would be an ultimately practical journey too taking us from one country to another that we need to go between anyway removing the need for costly flights which would dramatically offset the cost of the cruise.  In fact, if the flights are an assumed cost as is the cost of housing and food which we would not be paying for during the cruise time, the cruise actually becomes extremely inexpensive as it is two full weeks!

So our hope is to be able to try the cruise in thirteen months from now.  What an adventure that would be.  An adventure to us.  For more normal people, cruises are the calm, safe way to travel. For us it is a bit of the opposite.  Moving to a foreign country where they don’t speak English, no problem.  Living in a small village with few resources, no problem.  Getting on a luxury cruise liner for two weeks of pampering, now that worries me.  Thankfully no seasickness or motion sickness for me and Dominica has been able to handle a cruise before so we think that that is not an issue at all.

We stayed up until a little after eleven.  Dominica edited my latest article and I submitted it before turning in for the night.

Tomorrow Dominica is going to be taking Madeline to her dentist appointment, if all goes according to plan, and I will be home watching the girls again.

We are only two days away from the one month mark before we depart for Europe and almost exactly at the one month mark before Dominica and the girls head off to Walk Disney World and Universal Studios.  Time moves very quickly.  It will be upon us in no time.