Sonicist

We did Disney and it was great. I was worried about the little boy having fun, but he had a blast and skipped naptime completely. LJ got to ride Space Mountain.

Addie had a great time as well. I took her back to the magic kingdom last night and it was fun. The fireworks were really worth being sleepy this AM.

Again, I have pics, but I can’t put them up right now.

Tonight I write from DIsney’s Contemporary Resort where Laura is giving a talk and we are taking a vacation. The last two days we stayed at a Hilton Grand Vacations resort for a great deal and had a really wonderful time. We also went and visited Sea world.

I hope to post some good pictures of the adventure at some point. However, I am traveling without my computer so getting the images from the camera to the internet is all but impossible. We have been doing a lot of swimming and tomorrow we go to the magical kingdom, probably.

Well, Griffin is trying to sleep, and Addie and LJ are visiting with a conference president.

That’s the life from Florida

A friend posted this video of me and skip from a long time ago. It was recorded in the basement of my mother’s old house, 305 E. State.

It’s a little out of tune but good for nostalgia.

We are back in Ohio. We miss Croatia, and were sad leaving, yet it is nice to be home, if only because the sky doesn’t get light until 5:30, instead of 4:00 AM.

Our flights went well, and the kids were great. We stayed overnight in London for a night which helped to break up the traveling. I think G is a little amazed to be back, but really, by the time we got back to our house it was midnight for all of us (even though it was only about 6PM EST).

We have a lot to do to get our life here rolling again: G is going to school part-time. Addie will start some sort of summer activities (and she needs to get friends), we all have to see the doctor, and I might do some consulting with OSU.

I know I said that I would write more about Croatia, and I will aim for that soon, but right now I am going to relax with a cup of tea and enjoy the morning.

That’s the life from Ohio.

It feels so strange to know that we are leaving here tomorrow. This place has become home, and it is sad to say goodbye. At the same time, I am excited to get back to my old life and the things I miss at home.

A fast recap of the last few days reveals that we were back at the hospital, to replace the bandage that Griffin tore off. It was fine, and he stopped crying once he realized that it wasn’t going to hurt. While we were there we found this coffee machine.

Yesterday we took a nice morning walk and stopped to get Addie’s hair cut. The hair cutter’s here do a fantastic job. They are so thorough and careful. I have gotten my hair cut super short and they always go above and beyond anything I have ever gotten in the U.S. Laura loves to get her hair done in Croatia because they are so good, and it is a lot cheaper than back home. Here is a picture of Addie getting her hair cut.

We also have had to say goodbye to people we’ve gotten know. Many of our associations have been on a superficial level, if only due to the language barrier. But that is not to demean any of them. All of the people we interact with on a regular basis are very friendly, and seem happy to have us come into their shops. Below is a photo of a woman who work’s at a store called, ‘Naomi’s’. She has been very nice to all of us. Tonight we will go to our favorite ice cream place and say goodbye. It is hard leaving here.

Right now Addie and LJ went out to have some time together, and to find food. Griffin is sleeping and I am going to relax, and do nothing.

I hope to conclude the Croatian portion of this blog by giving a recap of notable services we found useful, so that anyone following in our steps might be able to use our knowledge.

That’s the life from Croatia.

I am feeling better, but I can’t quite get a grip on the fact that it’s Thursday night and we have only three more days to spend in Croatia.

This morning I woke up feeling better. Still down, but I took the kids to the zoo for probably the last time. The heat wiped me out, but with a slow steady pace we made it back in time for lunch and nap-time.

The heat is bad, even if I wasn’t recovering from Salmonella, so I kept the kids inside all day and they were going nuts. I needed to do some cleaning so I let them turn the house into a huge mess. I was packing and sorting and throwing things away.

At dinner time we realized that Griffin had !Huge! blisters on his fingers. So after we cleaned up, we packed supplies for who knows how long, and we took a stroll up to the local emergency room. After getting checked in and waiting for a short while we were called back and found ourselves with a pleasant doctor.

I tried to explain how Griffin had gotten his burns and he wasn’t getting it. Laura said, “Polenta”, and he said, “Oh. Nurse, (enter Croatian speak here)”.

Two nurses with friendly smiles came and cleaned his fingers. I covered his eyes and they broke open the blisters. He tried to see what was going on, and when he started crying I noticed that they put some sort of cleanser on his wounds.

They smiled and said, “Bravo”, and we all got him back in a good mood, as they wrapped his hand in bandages. They blew kisses as we left and Griffin strutted out like a man-victorious.

It was so fast and efficient. When we tried to pay they looked at what we got and told us to forget about it. There is something very wrong with the way American medicine works.

Here is a picture of Griffin with LJ. You can see the spot under his eye where some polenta splattered.

We go back this weekend to have the bandages removed, and to be examined. Just in time for our flight to London.

I leave you with this last photo I took at the Zoo today of African Horn Bills. I never knew a bird to have eye-lashes.

That’s the life from Croatia.

I think I got Salmonella during the last day on Lapad. I think that I got it at a restaurant a little down the road from our apartment. It’s the one with a terraced eating area on top of the restaurant.

It struck me as I was eating the food that it didn’t seem quite right. It wasn’t bad… but the service was.

Anyway. Late Saturday night I got chills and couldn’t get a good thought cycle for dreaming. I woke up and took a lot of ibuprofen. That allowed me to keep it together to participate in our return flight to Zagreb, and up the hill in the really hot weather.

When we got home I gave it up. Laura didn’t really want to believe that I was sick. After I told her about my bad headache and fever and pains, she gave me a sleeping pill and I passed out.

The next morning I took more ibuprofen and tried to get through the growing sickness inside of me. At the time I was thinking it was a bug, or a mild flu. Headaches, nausea slight aches. I took it easy and went with the family to get diner. Right after eating I knew I had had enough.

This is the singularly worse thing I have ever been through. The dreams I was having Monday night were so awful, involving a strange criss-cross pattern of interlock-ability that could not be released from one side with out destroying the entire complex. I know. It doesn’t make sense.

The pain in every organ in my body broke through the sleeping pills, and I lay awake and writhed. That morning I woke up with the runs. Tuesday AM Laura convinced me to got to a doctor.

We found an English speaking one and I took a cab. They put fluids in me and took blood. He gave me a prescription for some pills to take, which I started taking right away. I got a call that night and learned that it was very serious and something like Salmonella.

That night (last night) my dreams took on a more positive note, at one point taking one the image of me running from something bad, and then something else happens, and cone-shaped metal obejets fly at me, I run and they hit and stick to and completely inundate that other thing, and I escape. I woke up an I felt my insides settle and shift and deflate.

This morning I was still in bad shape in someways. but the body pain is mostly gone. I am still watching what I eat (dried bread and crackers, with a little jogurt) but I am keeping fluids where they belong.

Tomorrow I am going to the zoo for the last time.

Other news, Griffin put his hand in a bowl of fresh hot polenta. Got a bad burn on two of the fingers on his left hand, and a 2nd degree burn below his eye. He’s doing fine now, but he screamed and cried for about two hours before he finally went to sleep.

Laura has missed a lot of work, watching the kids, and is now trying to catch up while Addie reads and Griffin sleeps.

That’s the life from Croatia.

Yesterday we actually had part two. We went back into Dubrovnik and found the Cafe Buza, or something like that, and sat and had drinks outside the walls, took in the fabulous views, and watched people dive off a cliff into the blue water.

This morning we decided to skip the city and find the sand beach, instead of the pebble one. We found where it should be, but it wasn’t sand, it was smaller pebbles. It was nice. They had a “Cupocubana” and charged a bit for the use of the lounge and the umbrella. The water was filled with rocks, so shoes were a requirement.

We all got a lot of sun, and had to head back after about two hours. On the way back we found the water-side walk which was very nice. We had lunch and put the boy down for naptime.

One of my favorite things to do is to spend time with Adelaide while Griffin is asleep. ‘G’ takes up so much of our attention, being the baby of the family, that it’s really special to enjoy my daughter one-on-one. I have coffee drinks, and she an orange drink and we just enjoy ourselves.

When Griffin woke up we went back to the old city. It was so different being there on a weekend afternoon vs being there on a weekday morning. The crowds really detract from the city in many ways.

By comparison, Venice is different than Dubrovnik because Venice has accepted its fate as a tourist destination, and Dubrovnik is still coming to terms with it. Just 13 years ago they were losing their population to war. Also Venice is larger and you can get lost from the crowds easier. If there is a cute baby nearby, the kind Croatian in the people comes out, but sans baby, it seems that some of the people are a bit resentful of the tourists.

As a result, we didn’t hang out too long in the old city and went back to enjoy a dinner by the bay. Addie took this picture of me. There aren’t many pictures of me on this site, so I thought that I would add this one. Addie says that in the picture I look like someone important.

After dinner we went back to our apartment, “Orka” in Lapad, and enjoyed the wonderful garden. We found turtles living inside the stone walls. We talked to the owners about it and found out that no one put the turtles there, they just come. They get food and water, and there are over 20 turtles that live here, from hatchlings to large sized adults.

The owners are so nice and talked with us in a relaxed manner. We found out that the property has been in the family for over 500 years. Looking for a place to stay in Dubrovnik? Skip the hotels and get an apartment. I would recommend Orka. Kids are welcome. The family here has a 17 mo old (Although I have yet to hear her make fuss).

We head back to Zagreb to finish our last week in Croatia. It’s strange to think that this wonderful experience will be over soon. I hope we get to do this, or something like it, again in the future.

As a parting pic, I leave you with this image of the Old City with the crowds.

That’s the life from Croatia

We are here, and it is as great as everyone says it is. An absolute must see.

Our flight was delayed out of Croatia, and I understand that this is a frequent thing and should be included into any time schedules you might create. We were picked up by the family of the apartment that we are staying in. We are staying in Orka, in Lapad. It is a bus ride into Dubrovnik, we have great views of the bay and mountains from our window, the gardens are nice and have character, and best of all… its the first place we have stayed that has internet included with the room. No extra charge.

The first day we found a pebble beach that was not a great place to swim. Although I must say that we found some nice rocks. We swam and Griffin puked. We realized that Griffin puked in London, Budapest, Zadar, Pula, Trogir, Venice, and now Dubrovnik. He might have even gotten Ljublianna.

Griffin woke us up early: 5:30 early. So we got to the old city before 8:00. The good news is that we got there before the crowds. The bad news is that we had to wait for a coffee shop to open.

While we waited we took in some sights of the town. Here is Griffin enjoying the boats.

We then climbed up to the city walls, which everyone said we should do, and we were glad that we started early. We beat the crowd, and the heat. We had to stop halfway through because it was getting too hot to keep the kids up there. Oh, and if you’re thinking about taking a stroller, forget about it.

Addie enjoyed it, although some of the heights made her nervous.

And Laura found a respite from Griffin.

One of the things I enjoyed was the swarms of swallows that raced over head in mad dashes across the city, spotting the sky with their wings, and dotting the buildings with their shadows.

After nap, we took the kids to a small amusement park-like thing. Then we took the bus back to the old city and walked around some more. Tomorrow we go back again. And we are going to look for the sandy beach.

Right now Croatia is playing against Turkey (soccer). The sounds from the game can be heard. I love it here.

That’s the life from Croatia

We are down to the last 12 days or so. Tomorrow we fly to Dubrovnic. Addie has lost two teeth, and Griffin is about to become bi-lingual.