Our departure from the U.S. this time included closing the book on one part of our life that has been there since we met. In 2009, long before I met Sue, I bought a very shiny, dark red Saab 93 convertible. It was first my, then our go to car. Sue had a very sensible …
Tag: life
Summer: June and July
Sorry, we've been distracted by friend visits and family matters, but have been in Chicago for a while, with a pit stop in New York. We're in the States for the summer, but need to catch you up on June and July. So, after Steven's birthday, it was my turn. I got a little distracted …
Birthday Time!
Last weekend was Steven's birthday. He likes to downplay it, so we only spent a few days celebrating (totally Sue's choice, I would have just ignored it). We wanted to get together a few of people we met at the wine tasting. In trying to accommodate the other two couples, we ended up with a …
Wow is it an Adjustment!
Don't get me wrong, we love it here (of course we're still in the honeymoon phase), but sometimes, at the end of the day, our brains hurt. So many things are just different enough, and I'm not even talking about the language—I'll get to that later. Some things are common whenever you move, wherever you …
A Whole Week in a Few Paragraphs
One of our friends asked ChatGPT (or a similar tool) to describe our blog. Apparently it said that we were slow travelers. I took that to mean that we stayed in places for a relatively long time and became comfortable in those places (to my family members who are no doubt thinking that it probably …
Weekend Wanderings
Those of you who read the blog know that we are partial to what we call Death Marches—walks of at least 10 miles. These were suspended for a time, but we're now easing back into them. Since we had just arrived in Valencia and had a busy week with friends, we didn't have time to …
Thanksgiving Debrief
We proved all the naysayers wrong -- we pulled off Thanksgiving dinner for 19 people (including us) with nary a hitch, unless you count an extra pan of veggies and one of stuffing a hitch (in a relatively small three bedroom townhouse). Steven's mom and Vitor arrived Monday, and the rest of the clan trickled …
The Siren That Is Chicago
Every time we land (or arrive in some other fashion) at O'Hare, it feels like home. Only we can complain about the death marches through O'Hare, the long waits for luggage and the trek to the Uber pick up because we are honorary Chicagoans in our minds. We have friends and family here. All is …
