Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

We finally sold our house. For real, for sure, forEVER. Had a little scare earlier in the week when our realtor called to tell us that our buyer had taken a new job. Within the same company, but he would be making about $1500/year less. The banks in California are freaking out so much about foreclosures and funding people (who can blame them, really?) that we had to jump through some hoops to keep the sale intact. Basically, we had to lower the house price by $1500. It was either that or move on to seller #4. We went with the $1500 discount. It really doesn't amount to much at the end of the day. Our amazing realtor is getting almost no commission because he keeps lowering his rate to make up for the crap we've had to go through...I feel kind of guilty about that because he sold us the house and now is selling it for us and he has been amazing for both events. If anyone reading this needs a great realtor in San Diego, please e-mail me! Ali, our realtor, called us the mi...

We're moving to Germany!

Ugh. This has been the worst day. It is sooooooo, soooooo hot and humid here right now. I know I shouldn't complain because compared to other regions in the triple digits, I'm sure that it isn't more than 85 degrees in Newport right now. It's just...the humidity. Oh God. It is so awful. I hate, hate, hate getting out of the shower and getting dressed to just feel filthy and sticky again. What's the use? I should just forget about trying to make myself presentable at all, except that not taking a shower at all would be a million times worse. Of course, no air conditioning in this house. (Please picture me a la Scarlett O'Hara, kneeling in the garden and shaking my fist at this house "I'll never go without air conditioning again! As God's my Witness!"). Why oh why oh why did I think that we could live in a 150-year-old house with no air conditioning? What was I smoking that week in Yokosuka when I signed the lease for this freezing c...

Well, it's not an Audi, but close enough...I have dreams in which I'm driving like this. With Clive Owen.

Friday night standoff results: Josiah 1, Hans 0. They sat in the kitchen, Josiah wailing and Hans working his Sudoku, for at least an hour and a half. I took Annika up and gave her a bath. The wailing was much harder to hear from the bathroom. Finally, Hans and Josiah came upstairs. Josiah was put straight to bed by his grim-faced father. I timidly inquired if Josiah had eaten and was tersely informed that he had not. So, even though Josiah got a spanking and no story before bed, I think that, technically speaking, he did win the standoff. Maybe he did learn a lesson, though, because yesterday he ate every single bite of every meal. Without any coercion at all, believe it or not. Maybe he really is listening! Yesterday we ran some errands. We went to Michael's, where we proceeded to drop $200 to get glass replaced in one of our French posters that caught the breeze and flew off a mantel, breaking the glass. I've been taught a lesson in regards to leaning things on mant...

Josiah sits screaming in the kitchen, and I do mean, screaming. I had to shut both doors into the kitchen and both of the kitchen windows for fear the neighbors would think we're branding him or something. Sweet Lord. The truth is that he and Hans are locked in another food standoff. What are we asking him to eat? Something horrible like snails or lizard esophagus or turtle gizzards? Are we asking him to eat cardboard or tinfoil or toenail clippings? Maybe a tasty sandwich made with...Spam? I almost said pimento loaf, but then I remembered Spam. No, none of those horrible, terrible, awful things. We are simply asking him to ONCE, just ONCE finish his dinner. He is eating a meal that he claims to love. Chicken tenders, french fries, garlic toast, bananas. In the past he finished this meal easily and smiled as I handed him his treat. M&Ms, yogurt, pudding, whatever. Ahhh , those were the days. Lately, I can't seem to get him to eat anything. He used to have thre...

Here's a website that I have visited a few times in the past. It's pretty damn funny. I have no idea if these folks are truly writing Handbag and asking for baby naming advice or if it's one big joke. Some of these are just too good to be true. http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/index.html And again, may I note that I just find this generally amusing, it is no way commentary on anyone's choices. OK? Please? I promise. In fact, I see a baby name in here (albeit in a different spelling than I would choose) that I have in mind if we would ever have another girl.

Those of you who knew me six years ago know that I never had anything good to say about Wal -Mart. Part of this intense dislike was the fact that I was at school studying urban planning, where we discuss things like how Wal -Mart moves into small towns and basically blows all the small local businesses away and kills vibrant downtowns . Blah, blah, blah. I know that Andrew just loved being stuck in the car with Hans and me while we bickered about Wal -Mart. Right Andrew? Another reason I disliked Wal -Mart was work related. They are hell to deal with if you are a construction contractor. They expected the company I worked for to drop everything to run to fix things at their stores, even if the store was an eight-hour drive away. They insisted that we do strange things to their invoices, like highlight different things in different colors and seal the envelopes with the congealed blood of doves. My bosses all kowtowed to the mighty powers at Wal -Mart. God, how I loathed them. My bosses...

View from the tower at Fort Barton (Mt. Hope Bridge & Aquidneck Island) Josiah on the bridge He climbed up there all by himself! Pretty nimble for a 17-month-old Annika loose in the wild

That's right, we visited another fort. Luckily for me, there are approximately 75 forts of some type or another in Rhode Island. See, it works well. I want to go and see a certain area of Rhode Island. My husband, alert to the possibility that I may want to look at antiques or do something crazy like desire to visit a berry farm to get some fresh raspberries, gives me a skeptical look that translates into: not on your life. Haha . Little does he know that I have googled a site that gives the names and locations of every fort, redoubt and breastwork in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Haha . Devious little me. I just click on the one closest to where I want to go and casually mention that "Oh hey, did you know there's a Revolutionary War-era redoubt there?" Funny how I get him to change his mind. OK, it's not actually that bad. Actually, Hans does many, many things to make me happy without coercion. It's true, I promise. However, isn't ...

I can't stand having dry skin on my hands. Can't stand it. Today during our bi-monthly trip to Target, I found this great hand cream . I'm kind of picky about my hand creams . I like a really thick, buttery cream that coats my hands and leaves me greasy for awhile. Past loves in this category have included Mary Kay's hand cream (still the best IMHO), Aveda's hand cream (insanely expensive but smells yummy) and also Sally Hansen's Flawless Hands (cheaper but doesn't smell as nice). And now, J.R. Watkins brand hand creams . They are great-- shea butter, thick, beautifully scented. My hands are soft, my cuticles moisturized. It almost looks like I had a manicure. In one word...perfection. Today, I decided to try Watkins' lemon cream scent. I want to lick my hands every time I put it on, which has been more often than usual since I first smelled it. Seriously. Go and get some and see if you don't want to eat your own pinkie . It smells ju...

I swear, I put these in in the correct order!!!! Learning to use a spoon (and sharing, awwwww) Suffering from a case of the evil green pox Do not enlarge. Please. The beach Pell Bridge at sunset Par-La-Ville Park in Hamilton Tea Time Hans revisits the site of a 1989 photo Scoping out the babes on the beach

Let's travel back in time....back to the end of June... The Tall Ships Festival was in full force here in Newport. We're nice and close to downtown, so we were able to put the kids in the buggy and stroll out to take a look. I've forgotten the statistics already, such as how many ships were there and which countries were represented. All that I know is that they were lovely to look at, there were foreign sailors all over Newport and there were about 1,000,002 extra tourists in town over the five days of the festival. Neither Hans nor I managed to tour any of the ships, but we got close enough to get some good looks and some good pictures, so enjoy. As part of the Tall Ships Festival, Naval Station Newport had a band concert and fireworks on the lawn of the War College on the 29 th . We figured this was a good time to introduce Josiah and Annika to fireworks and celebrate Independence Day a bit early, since we'd be in Bermuda on the 4 th . We walked down to the ba...

So, we haven't been up to too much today...we slept in verrrrrry late. Watched some MTV, "Parental Control". We've seen it once or twice before. It's kind of interesting. Basically, the premise of this show is this: a young lady or gentleman (and of course, I use those terms very loosely) is dating someone that his/her parents think is absolutely unacceptable. The parents interview and choose two new prospective mates for their son/daughter. More often than not, it's the daughter who needs a new boyfriend. I've only seen one in which the parents hated the girlfriend. Anyway. The fun part comes when the son/daughter's parents watch via video the two dates with the prospective mates. The parents watch it with the current, awful boyfriend or girlfriend. It's totally quality entertainment. We have seen exactly one show where the girl dumps the awful current boyfriend and goes with one of the new guys. Anyhoo . We spent most of the mornin...

The unfinished church in St. George Ditto Fort St. Catherine Me, from across the moat

Inside the Anglican church in Hamilton The clocktower at Dockyard Hans in St. George View of St. George Hans at Par-La-Ville Park in Hamilton Hamilton Me, walking the trail in the dry moat at Fort Hamilton Hans, being his usual 13-year-old self at Fort Hamilton The view from the top of the Anglican church

Skipped #3, sorry about that. I'm sure you really don't want to be bored with a play-by-play of every single moment of our vacation. Day #3 was very nice. We spent it on the easternmost end of the island, in the little town of St. George. Hans visited another fort, Fort St. Catherine, while I found a place to sit outside with my book. The view really kept distracting me, though, so I didn't get much reading done. If there's one thing that I am really loving about Bermuda, it's the amazing aquamarine color (and clarity) of the water. Hans found out on his tour of the fort that there are eighteen (!) forts in various degrees of ruin on Bermuda. That seems like a lot, but in actuality, they were probably all very necessary as Bermuda is very full of...nooks? Maybe that's not the right word. There are lots of bays and inlets and points. Lots of places of entry by enemies. Today, we spent the majority of the day at the beach. There are two Fairmont hotels ...

Bermuda, day #2. My dogs are tired tonight... First, we slept in. Late. Thank heavens for blackout shades. I have promised Hans that we will get blackout shades in our next home. We slept until 8:30. Bliss. Next, we walked through Hamilton to see Fort Hamilton. Someone has a slight obsession with old forts (hint: not me, though I do enjoy them to some extent). It was a bit of a climb up there, but definitely worth it. We will post pictures, hopefully soon. Took a walk through the dry moat, where they have devised a trail amongst the native foliage. Saw one little lizard. Apparently, there are no snakes in Bermuda...or the sort of large insects that I came to love in Japan's subtropical climate. Next, we headed down the street, stopping to take some pictures at the Anglican church. A very nice lady with a lovely accent showed us around the interior of the church. She is a native of Bermuda, born here in 1920...her parents emigrated from England after her father was w...

No, Bermuda is not #1, it's just the first post from Bermuda. I know what you're all thinking. What the heck is Rachel doing sitting in her hotel room in lovely Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda, typing away on her computer? (God bless laptops, incidentally). The answer is that it is raining outside. Not that bad, it's true, but bad enough that after a day of traveling and approximately two hours out in the town of Hamilton, we were pooped out and came back to our hotel room. We have been crashed here since 4:00. It's now almost 7:00 and we're trying to get motivated. I feel sorta motivated, Hans is still in the bed watching TV (shocking, no?)...it's a lot harder to motivate him once he's down. We haven't discovered too much about Bermuda yet except that there are a lot of irritating Americans here. The kind that are so damn embarassing for the entire country. Hordes of loud cows from New Jersey. Lots of American girls in skirts that barely conceal their ...