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June 30, 2005
Beautiful Music
We received a cd from Eric's father in the mail today: We Coud Make Such Beautiful Music Together, by Bebo Valdes & Federico Britos. The title track was actually composed by Eric's Grandfather, who wrote music under the name of Henry Manners. In addition to a handful of standards from the 1940s, he also wrote Twitterpated and Thumper's Song from Bambi.
Grandpa Henry was the last in a long, long line of professional musicians. His own father, Louis was a bandleader of a handful of orchestras. (If you click the link he is the man standing) None of their current descendants have so far shown any musical talent. I know it's too early to tell for my kids and their cousins, but I do plan to start piano lessons in the next year or so.
Anyway, I don't usually listen to jazz, but I really like our new cd quite a lot.
Posted by Julee at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)
Cherries
Posted by Julee at 10:14 PM | Comments (2)
June 29, 2005
A Fine Example of Cinematic Art
The Regal Movie Theater chain is offering the free family film festival this summer. Every week they show a different G-rated movie on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Well the kids and I went to see Rugrats in Paris! This was my first experience with The Rugrats and I have to say that more irritating characters do not exist. I don't think they could have found more grating voices for the babies. I tend to dislike children's animation in general and this was by far the worst movie I have ever seen. We have another 6 or 7 weeks of movies left and I am confident that they can only be better than this one.
I know, I know it was free. And plus the kids really liked it.
Posted by Julee at 10:21 PM | Comments (4)
June 25, 2005
Our Suburban Life
We moved into our new home a week ago. We went from a very small apartment in the city to a sprawling house in the suburbs. We even live in one of those subdivisions with a cute name.
I will definitely miss being able to do most of my errands on foot and stopping at a coffee house on my way home, but we already really like having the subdivision pool a half block away. I'll miss being close to the subway station but it's pretty nice having an attached garage with an automatic door opener. We have a nice fenced-in back yard and I can actually see my kids play from the kitchen. We don't have to worry about waking the childless neighbors downstairs when our kids wake up at 6:00 am on Sunday mornings.
Back in Boston we had a pair of men, who were probably as close as you could get to the real life incarnation of the Furry Freak Brothers, keeping track of the activity on our street. Here in San Antonio we live next door to the president of the neighborhood association, who came over and introduced himself to Eric while he and the boys were mulching. (a very suburban activity)
Posted by Julee at 08:41 PM | Comments (5)
A Picture for Today
Posted by Julee at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2005
Survey
Posted by Julee at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
The Red Tape of the Air Force
We arrived at Lackland AFB on Sunday the 12th in the afternoon to move into the Temporary Lodging Facility (TLF). To get a pass to get on base we needed to show photo ID, our car registration and proof of car insurance. We had all of those but unfortunately our proof of insurance had no expiration date. So apparently this was not proof that we were currently insured. So we had to drive to the airport on the other side of town to rent a minivan, paying for the extra insurance policy so we could have proof in hand. We had to transfer a whole van-load of our belongings with 3 hungry and exhausted kids in 95 degrees and the full Texas sun beating down upon us.
We had had little success house-hunting earlier that day so I had scheduled a few appointments over the next couple of days. The problem was that if I left base I had no guarantee I could get back on and into our room. Apparently a visitor's pass was in the works but had not happened yet. Also if I was to remain on base all day I could not get food for the kids because I didn't have a government ID yet and could not shop at the commissary.
It took a couple of days before we got the car issue and my ID straightened out but we are still working on Eric's pay. We are getting something but it's not accurate and we are still not getting pay stubs to see what needs fixing. The bureaucracy is a little overwhelming.
But I do have to say my husband looks like a stud in his BDU's. (camouflage)
Posted by Julee at 03:36 PM | Comments (3)
Friday Random Ten
Shuffle Those MP3s
1. I Have Come out to Play - Jonathan Richman
2. Sunday Kind of Love - Etta James
3. Soma - Smashing Pumpkins
4. The White Dog - Handsome Family
5. Stucco - Calexico
6. Elizabeth on the Bathroom Floor - Eels
7. Lack of Knowledge - Violent Femmes
8. Close to Me - The Cure
9. Right in Time - Lucinda Williams
10. Oh Boy - Jude
Posted by Julee at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
The drive from Kansas City to San Antonio
We didn't make it driving through the night as planned. Of course we got started much later than we had wanted. And then we ended up driving through thunderstorm after thunderstorm all the way to the Oklahoma border. We were pretty wiped out so we stopped at about 2:30 am in Oklahoma City and slept for about 4 hours. We didn't arrive in San Antonio until about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. It was pretty miserable because Iris whined almost every moment she was awake.
Posted by Julee at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)
June 23, 2005
Back Online and in San Antonio.
We finally have an intrenet connection! The Roadrunner guy just drove away. We are in San Antonio in our new home. I'll post more this evening.
Posted by Julee at 02:54 PM | Comments (5)
June 10, 2005
Kansas City
We've been in Kansas City for a little over a week just hanging out with family. It has been the perfect distraction for the kids. There have been a few tears from Henry who already misses Boston very much.
We are leaving tonight for San Antonio. Eric and I will take turns driving through the night. Hopefully the kids will sleep for most of the 12-14 hour drive. I have already made a few appointments to see houses tomorrow. We would really like to find a place this weekend since Eric reports for duty on Monday morning and will hit the ground running, so to speak. I would hate to find a house by myself with 3 kids in tow. But if I need to do it, then I will do it.
We are going to treat ourselves to a nice hotel right on the Riverwalk tomorrow night and then we will stay at the temporary officer's housing until we find a home. I'll keep you posted.
Posted by Julee at 03:00 PM | Comments (3)
Eric
I can't help but brag. When I picked Eric up at the airport this morning he had his diploma in hand. It says cum laude on it. He also got his NERB results back about a week ago. Not only did he pass, but he got all perfect scores.
Posted by Julee at 02:51 PM | Comments (3)