A couple of years back, we got a car. It was a much needed balm at the time and over the past few years, it has been a real life saver. Our little “Silver Car,” as Monki dubbed it, allowed us a freedom of movement which was vitally important.
Sure, Kaunas has public transportation, but the car let us go and explore places public transportation made extremely difficult to reach, if they went there at all. This was how we were able to visit the beaches and hiking sites in nature and even make day trips to the zoos and dino parks which aren’t in our backyard.
Had an interesting moment today. Monki and I had a fight. Not a big one mind you, but an important one. See, every day, we change the calendars. Over here in Lithuania (and maybe the rest of Europe, I can’t really say), calendars come with a piece of elastic with a little red square for putting over the date. Handy, right?
School starts next week. For me. For Monki, it starts the week after. Yup! She’s not only enrolled in kindergarten/preschool, but she also starts ballet classes on Monday the second of September. Now, those events will probably warrant a post of their own, but in the meantime, this is my last weekend before the semester starts and I have to knuckle down and get stuff done.
Rasa’s mom’s birthday is August 4th. We decided that going up to 
It’s been a busy few months here at the new house. First, the 
Monki is now 23 months old. Leave aside the standard “oh my god look how quickly time goes by” stuff and there’s some really interesting things going on. As you know, we’re a divided family. I’ve talked about this 
The next three days were a blur of seeing friends and doing things around the house with the parents.
Monday morning and we had been “in country” for nearly a week. We woke up early (no jet lag excuse, just normally get up early) and got everything packed and ready to go. We had to “check out” of our Air B&B by 11am so the house was a flurry of activity as everyone grabbed all the stuff which had migrated everywhere and corralled it back into suitcases and backpacks. 
Saturday was reserved for 
Friday morning was destined to be a travel day. First up was having breakfast in nearby Oceanside with an old friend, Mike Wallis. I first Mike some 25 years ago when he was my instructor at a comedy traffic school and we ended up having a discussion about Satanism…as you do. Back when I lived in LA, we were pretty tight but, as happens, we drifted away into our own things. We’d chatted a few times over the years, and even gotten together for a coffee or two when I was in town, but even then it had been several years since we’d seen each other. So he came down and we went up and we met for a nice breakfast at a place called 
Thursday was again planned to be a family day. And again, due to jet lag, we were up early. Fortunately, mom and dad also got up early so we could spend some time with them. Faye, her boyfriend Matt and the three kids were all still sleeping, having stayed up late the night before so just the five of us headed out to grab a bite. 
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 