Posts by Chuck Curtis
We took my mom to the airport this morning after a nice (but short) visit with her. For the next couple of days we have an empty house. Rebecka flew back to Sweden on Friday; Linda and Sofia are visiting Niagara falls until Tuesday morning.
The summer doesn’t really slow down until after my trip with the boys next week, but a short break in the rush is welcome.
Will added entertainment on the drive home from Hartford. He decided to sing (yes, crazy to hear Will sing) along with the song Chiquitita:
Take your teeth out, tell me what’s wrong…..
Thanks to Sofia for the alternate lyrics for will to sing.
It is sometimes nice to just let the ADHD take over…. so here is a bunch of random thoughts/updates. So, if either of the two readers of this don’t want random, I suggest you skip this post (Susanna excepted – she gets to read all my posts, good or bad).
In addition to enjoying NYC, the girls have been helping out around the house. This week they scrapped the trim on the front porch – the most complicated of section of exterior trim.
So… Project updates:
-Sailboat: The trailer is making progress – I need two more pieces of steel to finish repairs. Still working on the topside repairs and making trim for the interior.
– Kitchen Island: On hold until after the summer projects. The lumber is milled, hopefully it won’t get too warped before I get back to it.
– House Trim: Only progress on the porch mentioned above.
In addition, we are teaching Targa how to “shake” in Swedish. The command is “Vacker Tass.” He is doing pretty well. We decided that Tucker is a little too slow to learn Swedish this week.
Now off to the casino to walk around a bit…
Random enough?
Yesterday we headed to Six Flags New England for a day at the amusement park. We had a long, fun day in the sun – luckily it wasn’t too hot.
Tonight we had dinner made by Sofia and Linda, with dessert made by Rebecka.
Thanks to Sofia for cutting the boys’ hair this morning. It is too hot to do much outside other than go to the beach.
Susanna’s youngest sister, Rebecka, arrived from Sweden yesterday. That brings the number of Swedes in the house to four, outnumbering the non-Swedes for now (unless you count the dogs). It is quite crazy with both boys here and three guests – crazy, but fun.
We have two days with a full house, then the boys head back to their other house. Today will be a “take it easy” day – the boys want to invite friends over (so we can have more boys in the house than girls – the normal balance of things) and have Sofia and Linda cut their hair. Tomorrow will be Six Flags.
This weekend it will just be four Swedish women and me. I’ll lock myself in the workshop. And visit the Sawyer farm – fewer Swedes there.
We enjoyed a nice evening on the patio. The weather hasn’t been so hot the past two days. I have been off of work all week (okay, I’ll be back for a part day on Thursday). Susanna’s sister, Sofia, and her friend, Linda, were scheduled to arrive later in the evening.
We enjoyed a quiet day. Or as the boys like to call it, “a boring day.” But we all needed a quiet day. That isn’t to say that we sat around and did nothing all day (even though the boys like to think that).
Susanna got the house ready for her sister’s arrival. It is nice to be able to relax and not have to stress about being the one in charge. I just did the chores assigned to me… no planning or stress required. I figured it is nice to have only one person in charge of getting the house ready, and I’m happy for it to not be me.
I made some progress on the boat and trailer. In the morning Will and I went to Mid-City Steel to get new cross beams for the trailer. I finished painting one of the trailer wheels (black paint looks much better than rust). I even decided to take a little break from the chores and got the lathe out to turn some toys for Ben. I still don’t know what I’m doing on the lathe, but it is fun to try to turn wood.
After dinner the boys and I watched the end of “Return of the King.” We started the movie a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed a good way to end a quiet day.
Yesterday we headed north to Massachusetts for a visit to Six Flags amusement park. We spent the morning at the main park, and the afternoon at the water park.
It was a perfect way the split the day. We were able to do rides before the full heat of the day – and cool off in the water in the afternoon heat. Of course half a day at each park doesn’t give enough time to do all the rides…. but we have season passes so we will be returning several times this summer (starting with next week when Susanna’s sister, Rebecka is visiting).
Ben was finally tall enough to go on some of the bigger coasters. He still wasn’t tall enough at 51″ to do the really big rides, but we were able to do more than last year. The first ride we did when we entered the park was “Thunderbolt,” and old wooden roller coaster. Ben hadn’t been on one that big yet, and the look on his face for the entire ride was of pure shock. But he loved it, and wound up doing “Flashback” twice (he convinced Will to ride at the end of the day). Flashback has a corkscrew and loop that you do first forwards, then backwards. So in one ride, you are upside down 6 times. They didn’t make them like that when I was a kid. Or maybe they did, and I was too chicken to ride on them.
Last Thursday Susanna and I decided to take a break from the house chores and the heat. I was up in Providence for other reasons that day, so we decided to spend the night in the Hilton Providence.
While walking around Providence, we passed a dining establishment that had been on “Man vs Food.” The boys enjoy watching “Man vs Food,” but haven’t seen the one for Providence yet…
The boys eventually did calm down last night. But of course not until Will had to head to my room to fall asleep. We all slept in. But not much (up at 6:30 – I guess better than up at 6). Now to cook breakfast….
