German Visitors

We had a really nice time with our German friends. The girls had a lot of fun playing with their two year old boy. Now we are pretty tired. Good thing we have a weekend to recover!

It has been, and will be for a while, hot, summery weather. Rather uncomfortable. Hopefully we start to get some thunderstorms. I didn't get much work done for my business last week and working in the heat is not much fun, so we will see how far I get this week.

Had a nice week at school. My lessons were cancelled on Thursday so I could develop a plan for next year with one of the other teachers. I proposed some pretty major changes - 3 graded tests instead of 9 and a work attitude grade which is really controversial here among other things. I was surprised at how well everything was received by my colleague and the two others that make up our little math section. I will break the news to the bigger math section this week, see how that goes. Nice intermediate step toward projects and subject integration.

The garden is doing well...did lots of work this week to prepare for the new swing.

Glulam

I have started working on a new technique this week. The idea is you cut thin strips of wood and glue them together to make structural beams. It allows you to introduce curves into the wood without steaming and bending it. I am testing it out on a swing for the garden, but I think it will be the way to build the domes in the future...

This was our only normal week this month. The first two were all about being on vacation, and in two days our dear friends from Germany are coming for a visit. We are looking forward to that, although they won't bring a car, so that will really limit what we can do.

Last weekend we got the chance to catch up with our friends around town, and even got invited over for a pizza dinner! The kids love making pizza. No surprise there. Our Turkish friends continue to have trouble with their new house. Now the stone cladding started falling off. This is not a small problem. We really hope they are able to get everything sorted out one day!

Dinner with the other twins.

Glulam construction.

Abigail excited about mommy's new creation: the tower of eggplant. She didn't eat a bite.

Vacation!

Happy Mother's day!!!

It was our first European vacation in four years. We really enjoyed it. We bombed down to Switzerland - the Volvo had no trouble coping with the autobahn. Didn't find the governed speed of the car...we topped out around 210kph. It only took us 8 hours in total to get there, and that includes a couple long stops.

We had a really nice time visiting Claire. Great food, beautiful town, walks in the mountains, and we didn't even get rained on although it was threatening for pretty much the whole time. The highlight of our time there was Naomi's birthday present. Claire made all the arrangements for a Camaro for the day! Naomi drove 272km in it, and some of the roads were pretty scary for her. My favorite wound around a beautiful lake in the mountains, a curvy James Bond like experience.

Claire also took us to a beautiful little monastery tucked into a canyon. It was a really cool thing to see - although the girls had more fun playing in the field of flowers nearby. On our way out of the country we stopped in Lausanne to visit one of my friends from the Peace Corps. It was fun to see him after so many years!

We spent a few nights in France. Found a really nice wooden house on the end of a road to stay on. It overlooked a beautiful little town. For some reason I am always surprised by how much better the food is there. Towards the end of the trip the girls were really ready to come home. It was a bit of a rough transition to come back into this country that shouts at you from the highway. Everything so much closer together, rude drivers, and bad food. It was good to be home though!

For the last few days we have been hanging out with some friends, enjoying the nice weather outside, and updating the website. Nice to reflect back on a year of projects!

Taking a break from the car tour around the lake.

Helping to make dinner.

Naomi's birthday present!

Cathedral in Nancy.

Playing in the field by the canyon monastery.

Cathedral in Nancy.

Climbing the cathedral tower in Claire's town, Solothurn.

Visiting a Swiss cheese factory.

Walking back from the canyon monastery.

Auntie Claire's baby-sitting skills. 

The view from the back of our house in France - sun came out as soon as we left Switzerland.

Time for goodbyes!

Cathedral in Nancy.

The only bit of sunshine we got in Solothurn. 

Naomi's birthday dinner at a yummy Greek restaurant.

Walking across the bridge in Solothurn. 

The view from the cathedral tower in Solothurn.

Sleeping on Auntie Claire's floor.

The canyon monastery.

The most recent update to the website.

Inside of the cathedral in Solothurn.

Our last dinner with Claire.

French raspberry pie.

The girls did great in the car!

A little coming home present.