I just want to take a moment to brag on my daughter. Please forgive the indulgence.
Christmas around our house is a celebration of family and not a religious holiday at all. Yes, we have a tree but that’s more for aesthetic reasons and are probably closer to the original pagan roots than anything else. We also have an “admin” calendar,* which is dutifully opened every morning (we tend to get Monki playmobil).
Continue reading “Santa 2025”
The school year here starts on September 1, which is also a holiday. This means that the kids all go to the school, meet or re-meet their teacher and classmates, have a little bit of a motivational ceremony, and then they’re free to go, with actual instruction starting on the 2nd*.
Continue reading “Getting Out – August 31”July 2 – Day 5
One of the other places we wanted to visit was Balos Beach. This is the location of the pale green, almost crystal waters you’ve seen in all the adverts. It was also someplace Rasa’s friend had been to last year when she visited Crete. The only problem seemed to be it was down another long slope from a high mountain parking area. Since we’d just done this, we wondered if maybe there was another way.
Continue reading “Seasick Mermaids – Crete 2025 – Part 3”June 30 – Day Three
We were to meet the car rental representative in the hotel lobby at 9:00 a.m., so we arrived bright and early at 8:55. He showed up promptly, and there was no problem signing all the paperwork. Honestly, one of the easiest car rentals I’ve ever done. The only issue came when we had to pay for it, and he couldn’t take cards. Of course, they never told us this. If they had, we could have gotten the money while we were out the day before (or even brought it with us). Instead, I took the car into town, following our rep to an ATM. I got the cash, paid for the car and headed back to the resort. The fun here was that I don’t usually drive. Rasa is the driver in our family. It had probably been a couple of years since I’d been behind a wheel, so driving a manual transmission up the narrow, windy 2km back to our place was a little nerve-wracking (not as nerve-wracking as driving in the UK a few years ago, but still…). I made it back safely and met the girls in the restaurant for breakfast.
Continue reading “Caves and Hearts – Crete 2025 – Part 2”June 28 – Day 1
There were a number of options for our annual summer break this year. So many, in fact, that it took us a while to finally settle on going back to Crete for a second year in a row. Remember, we also went last year, with my folks, right after Monki’s birthday. This year, we’d booked another all-inclusive for the week before her birthday, at a different resort in a different part of the island (Crete is the 88th largest island in the world). We also decided to rent a car this time, to get out and explore a bit more.
Continue reading “Back Again – Crete 2025 – Part 1”
This story starts long ago. Back in the late 70s, when I was in grade school, we had this thing called the Scholastic Book Club. I have no idea if it’s still going on and if it is, what resemblance it has to what I had experienced, but for me, in 4thand 5th grade, it was glorious.
Continue reading “The Shark in Charlie’s Window”
We like to take day trips. It’s fun to jump in the car and go off exploring parts of Lithuania we’ve never seen before. Or at least parts which some of us have never seen before. Interestingly, I’ve probably seen more of the little out of the way places than either Rasa or Monki. All of which brings us to this past weekend, when Rasa decided we should take a little trip to Anykščiai.
Continue reading “Anykščiai – Ten Years Later”July 18
Thursday was the day we had booked for our big excursion. But when we woke up, Monki was still feeling the effects of her exciting night, so she decided she wasn’t up for a long bus ride and Rasa was going to stay with her. Fair enough.
We all went to breakfast together and got our pre-packed box lunch from the resort to take with us (yup, all-inclusive means if you let them know you’re going to be away for lunch, they’ll send you along with a pre-packed meal). Then we said good-bye, asked for a ride down to the bottom of the hill and away we went.
Continue reading “Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 3”July 16
We had such a good time the night before that most of us slept late on Tuesday morning. I say most, but not me. I was up early as always so I went out and read on the patio. By the time we all finally made it down for breakfast, they were closing the place up. We were the last ones there and there wasn’t much food left.
Continue reading “Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 2”Prologue
It’d been a while since the folks had seen Monki and she had seen them outside of a video screen. Sure, we facetime’d regularly, but nothing beats actual face time. Since we didn’t know what Rasa’s vacation schedule was going to be like this summer, it seemed better all-around for them to come this way. So they made plans to head out over the summer to celebrate Monki’s birthday with her.
Continue reading “Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 1”
This was a big weekend. Saturday, June 1, was both World Children’s Day and Monki had a guitar “concert.” Then, Sunday, was Father’s Day here in Lithuania. Plus, it was also the first day of Lithuanian summer. So, as I say, it was packed.
Continue reading “Ouch – Father/Kid’s Day 2024”
A mere 7 months after our last Con, here we were again, doing it all over. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Only this time, the Con was happening the weekend after instruction ended for the semester, but since I had to be there early, that meant I needed to get all my classwork done ahead of time and the last meeting in two different classes had to be cancelled.
It’s been a helluva month. When August ended, we literally had no idea what was coming next. Seriously. Waking up on the morning of August 31, we really didn’t know what the future was going to hold for us. All we knew for sure was that Rasa had her PhD defense coming up on the 21st of September, and that was causing enough stress on its own.
Continue reading “September”Wednesday – July 19
We slept late (well, later than we usually slept) and made our way down to the included breakfast buffet, which was only available from 9-11am. It was typical fare, except they had bacon, which Monki has recently discovered, so she was rather excited to pile it high on her plate. They also had smoked bacon, which I was sure was raw, but Rasa insisted it wasn’t. It still took me two days to try it.
Continue reading “Šventoji – Summer 2023 – Part 2”
It’s fascinating watching your little one grow up. I know I’m not unique in this, all parents have gone through it but as this is my first time to experience it, and Monki’s first time to live through it, I find it endlessly enlightening.
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 