It's Been a Busy Month

Wow, I've just realized that it's nearly the end of October, and I've only posted twice this month. It has, though, been a really busy month for us, what with selling one house, buying another, and finally getting a vacation.

We just came back from a lovely week in the Dominican Republic, at the Iberostar Hacienda Dominicus in Bayahibe. This is our third time visiting this resort. The first few days, I was completely lazy and relaxed and forgot about packing, moving, houses, etc. Unfortunately, by about the fourth day, I started having dreams about packing, and it was no longer quite that relaxing. We did a lot of playing around in the pool and the sea, played lots of ping pong, and of course ate a lot.

My daughter March made friends with a German girl named J, and her family really adopted us! J's father spoke fair English, and J and her mother spoke just a tiny bit. J and March played backgammon a few times, and mostly played around in the pool. One night, we taught them to play "BS" or "Bull". They loved the game, and were quite addicted for the remainder of our trip. We all exchanged email addresses, and promised to write and send pictures, etc. But when we left, March cried her eyes out, and J's mother hugged March really tightly and was crying herself. So sweet!

I'll pretend that I took many pictures. But, really, I'm stealing these from elsewhere online!

Here's what the lobby looks like. Very open and airy, and when you first arrive, they bring you a "welcome drink" while you're registering.

We spent a lot of time at the pool, because it's easier to keep from burning here.

The beach is gorgeous too. The water is very clean and clear, and the waves are very mild. Even 50-100 yards out, you can stand in the water. When you look down, you'll see fish swimming around your feet. That lighthouse is actually a bar.

This is what happens when you tip the housekeeper. You get lots of these little towel swans all over your room!

Mmm, food. There are tons of choices in the food buffet. For breakfast, I mostly had eggs, granola and fruit. For lunch and dinner, I usually had fish of some sort and fruit/veggies. Plus dessert of course!!

June's favorite part of the buffet--all you can eat mango!!! I was seriously concerned that the entire island's supply of mango would be depleted before our departure. I would guess that she ate at least 3 mangos at every meal.

There are lots of little ponds and man-made water areas on the grounds. In them live lots of ducks, geese, swans, flamingos and turtles. June fell in love with the one white goose, who she immediately nicknamed "Aflac". The girls fed the animals every day with bread from the buffet. Most of them were pretty gentle while they were actually being given bread, but swans are very nasty animals!! If anyone stood near the edge without food, the swans would nip and bite the people's feet! J's father was teasing one of them, and the swan was really chowing down on his hand.

We're not big fans of the nighttime entertainment. I suppose if you're from some small town in the middle of nowhere, and you've never seen live entertainment, then these shows are very exciting. But for people who've lived in big cities all their lives, they seemed totally amateurish and dull. We did manage to stay through this one though, a version of the Lion King. They had asked June to be in the show, but she said no.

All in all, a nice vacation, and now we're home to start really packing in earnest. We are out on the 6th!

My friends...

Despite the hacking cough that my daughter has been kind enough to share with me, I was determined to stay awake through the debates last night. Because there were important things to be learned from listening to these two candidates discuss the issues. No, not their positions or views. Heck, I've already absentee voted anyway. But I made a bet with a co-worker as to how many times McCain would say "my friends". I said he'd say it 20 times. My co-worker first thought I was way off, that it would only be around 10 times. When I reminded him that it was a town-hall format, he upped it to 15.

He said it 17 times!!! I guess I technically lost. But still, I was pretty close.

It was also kind of fun to watch the scrolling Ohio undecided voters opinions. I didn't really understand all their reactions. Clearly they didn't like anything negative. In fact, both candidates should probably never have mentioned their opponents at all. But most interesting was that nothing McCain ever said made them really excited. They were often positive about what he said, just never at the highest possible rating. Whereas many things Obama said (even though to me they just sounded like standard debate rhetoric) caused them to give very high ratings. It was pretty easy to tell who won, anyway. To me, Obama looked like a president and McCain looked like some weird character from a Batman movie, with the weird jokes, the eyebrows bobbing up and down, the erratic pacing, even while Obama was talking.

Cough, cough, I guess I'll be needing a nap at work today.

My very first award!!

Okay, maybe it doesn't really count, because it's from one of my best friends, but that's okay, I'll take it anyway.

So, I'm proud to announce, that for my outstanding writing contribution to the blog community (cough, ahem, er, friendship with Olga), I have been honored with the Premio Arte Pico award.


It seems to originate in Uruguay, from this
blog, which I'm sure is quite a lovely blog, except that I don't speak Spanish so I have no idea what it says.

So, apparently, there are rules to these awards. Here are the rules:
1) Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.
2) Advertise name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winner, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.
4) Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico" blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) Share these rules.

So, as nice as the award is, the best part is that I get to pass it on to some of my favorite blogs, many of which I only lurk on (it's kind of awkward commenting on someone's blog the first time--I feel a bit like an intruder)

Shallow Gal makes me laugh so hard I cry/pee sometimes, and that's the nicest break in my otherwise boring day! Plus, she uses footnotes, how cool is that??

Where's My Cape is a complete, irreverant smart-ass too (and I say that with the utmost respect). Although she has so many awards already, she hardly needs this one. But what the heck, she cracks me up.

Vegan Lunch Box is a blogger who I truly admire. I am not vegan, and even if I were, I wouldn't have the time or patience to make these incredible little lunches for my kids (I consider myself SuperMom just for cookie-cutting their sandwiches into hearts on Valentine's Day), but I am in awe of people who make their child's lunch such a work of beauty. What a great way to encourage your children to treasure the earth's gifts.

Half-assed takes care of the other end of the cooking spectrum, and definitely more my style. There are some great ideas on here for quick, easy ways to throw something on the table that the kids won't secretly feed the dog.

Don't Take the Repeats was one of my favorite blogs for a long time. This is a posthumous award, since the poor lady was forced to shut down her blog by some nasty invader of her privacy. I will miss her.

Marinka is also one seriously funny Mom. In case my post-humous award doesn't count (since she can't post the award on her defunct blog), this is one of my newest favorites.