We did the great clothes "Swap Out" that I have to do twice a year. European houses don't have closets so we have to use armoire's to hold our clothes. Glenn stores his clothes in the office and attic (out-of-season clothes) and I store mine in the armoire in the bedroom and in the basement (out-of-season clothes). It's a major ordeal to bring my out-of-season clothes up from the basement and not something I enjoy doing by myself.
Well, this time I had a ton of clothes to swap out because of my sister's generosity and our recent time in the U.S.. Last September when we were home was the first time in four years that I've been in the States during warm weather so the summer clothes I'd brought out with me in January of 2007 were looking pretty ragged. Karin bought me a lot of summer clothes and I bought a lot of summer clothes so between the two of us, I think I'm set for the next four years! I now own 25 paris of capris and 15 pairs of shorts (knee-length, of course). No joking or "ministerially speaking" either! I counted them! Karin lost weight two years ago and saved her pants for me so I now have 30 pairs of pants, about half of which need to be hemmed. (Karin is 3-4 inches taller than me.) I'm set for the next couple of years, for sure! Now, I just need to stay this same size!
Last week I told you about May 4th being our neighborhood dump day. It was pretty rough and ugly in front of our house for the past week. The Gypsies have been camping on the lot in their vehicle (the white vehicle on the other side of the dumpster) every night and hanging around every day to make sure they get to dig through the discarded stuff first.
Early on the 4th, and I mean EARLY, like 7 am, the city workers were outside with their noisy trucks to haul off everything the Gypsies left behind. Again, EARLY on the morning of the 5th, Glenn was watching the city workers cleaning up the bits and pieces that were left behind and raking the area clean.
And believe it or not, this is where the pile of junk was located...and see how clean the area is! They always do such a great job of cleaning up after dump day!
We love Mexican food! We get together for Bible study on Thursdays with the Doyles, Snyders and Clubbs so since Thursday was Cinqo de Mayo (May 5th), we decided that everyone would bring a Mexican dish to share.
What a spread! Another project that Annette (purple shirt) and I were going do while she was in town was to make a pinata to use as decoration at our Mexican meal but we never got it made. The only thing we got done on that project was to buy the bag of candy! :-(
On Friday, before Annette returned to London, she decided to treat us to a pedicure and foot massage in town. We had an 8:00 am reservation (the only reservations available when you wait until the day before to call!) for the two of us at the A-List Spa and Salon which is just a couple of blocks from Moscow Square (Moszkva Ter). When we got off the tram, I saw a wonderful sight! The second ARRIBA restaurant has opened right around the corner from where we go for medical care! So convenient! Arriba is similar to a Moe's or Chipotle, a Mexican "fast food" place two notches up from Taco Bell.
(Okay, the next 3 pictures are a little graphic...so if you've got a weak stomach or don't like looking at feet, you might want to skip the next 3 pictures.)
Our pedicure started off with the latest thing in pedicures...putting our feet into an aquarium filled with tiny fish that eat dead skin. It felt weird to have these fish nibbling at my feet! (It looked like I had leaches all over my feet.) We sat like this for 20 minutes while the fish ate and ate and ate!
Then after a little more work on our feet, they gave us the best 20 minute foot massage! Ahhh!
Then they gave us a nice couple of layers of toe polish. I got Racy Red! Unfortunately, the weather here is still too cool to wear sandals that show off my beautifully pedicured toes. It was a great ending to a wonderful 10 days with Annette and I hated to send her back to London! We had a great time and I'm hoping she'll come again!
Now it is back to the real world. Glenn heads out tomorrow for two new countries in Central Asia to meet some of our leaders and personnel in that part of the world. Since CA now falls under his leadership, he needs to learn more about what it is like to live and work there. I, however, am staying in BP and "holding down the fort", but wanted to show you some of what Glenn needed to do before heading out for 9 days.
He needed to recharge his cell phone. Actually, where he will be the first 4 days will be in the mountains and he will basically be incommunicado. I'm not sure why the cell phone needed to be charged, unless it is for the one day he will be available before he goes into the mountains.
When he went to Prague last week, our internet was knocked out due to a rain storm and I didn't know how to fix it...so Glenn walked me through all the steps of disconnecting the modem and the router, and showing me how to reset my computer when the internet comes back on....just in case we have another heavy rainfall! What would I do without my computer for 10 days? Ugh!
Then he gave me this nicely typed out schedule of our Member Care retreat that he and I will be hosting here in Budapest beginning the day he returns home! The three MC couples coming from France, U.K., and Turkey will be staying at the Eden House but the meetings and most meals will be at our house. Glenn typed this wonderful schedule so that I could start planning the meals and doing whatever pre-cooking and freezing could be done ahead of time.
He showed me where we store health files and other important documents.
He taught me how to work his travel alarm so that I can wake up in time to go walking with my walking partner. (Now, in my own defense...I already know how to set travel alarms but while he was in Prague, I couldn't figure out how to work the one he left behind. I even had Annette try to figure it out. As it turns out, I was doing it correctly, but I didn't realize how HARD you have to press the MODE button to get it to work!!!)
And he gave me some money and some bills to go pay while he is gone. All bills here get paid at the Post Office which is located in the Campona Mall.
An interesting side note here: some bills are delivered to your house by the company rather than delivered through the postal service. Also, they don't charge late fees here! If you don't pay your bill on time, they send you a second notice, and then if you haven't paid the bill by time the next one comes out, they just add it into the next months' bill! I'm not sure how many months you'd have to get behind in order for them to cut off your water or discontinue your phone service (because we always pay before the next months' bill comes)!
Now Glenn is upstairs printing out some pages of information for him to carry with him on his trip. Things like his boarding pass, contact info of where he will be staying, and his Bible reading schedule. Next he will email his Out of Bed report (OOB), which is something we send whenever we are going to be traveling. It lets our supervisors, co-workers and family members know where we will be and how to get in touch with us during our travels. Maybe one day I'll do a blog entry on our OOB report!
Anyway, I'm home for the week and have a list a mile long of projects I hope to work on while Glenn is gone. Nope, I won't be bored! I'll miss him but I won't be bored!!!
2 comments:
Sounds like you're well-prepared. He's such a good Boy Scout :)
I just kinda stared at that picture of the green grass after they cleaned off the junk. a) Green grass!, b) Wow. They haul off junk.
Both such interesting concepts!! :)
You and Glenn will be busy in different ways, that's for sure.... your description of the pedicure was amazing, I could feel the fish swimming around my feet as I looked at your pictures. Looking forward to seeing you this summer.
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