Wed 6/28/2006

"That's what I call a home breakfast: home pasta, and home sauce." spencer

There was a storm last night that moved us to the depths of all. The shade awning that Laszlo just replaced was having trouble. Fairly big trouble.

He came by early, checking to see what parts he would need to fix it _this time._

It was standing proud when we first got here, then a storm tore it apart, and now this storm did a number on it.

Heather is planning tomorrow "Maybe we'll go to the circus, they have a circus everyday in Budapest."

The kids, including molly, used the Marzipan modeling 'compound' to make animals. "What a nice frog!" Heather was impressed. (frog DSC_8690.JPG)

Molly replied "That's a turtle." She had made it, so should know.

"That looks dead" h. "What are you making?" molly "I was making the bluebird of happiness, but it looks like the fetal birth." "What is the bluebird of happiness?" molly "You haven't heard of the bluebird of happiness? No wonder your life has been the way it has." Heather.

"There" Heather added red tail feathers. "Now he is on fire?" Molly

(DSC_8688.JPG) "He's having trouble sitting up" heather "That is because he is on fire!" Maddy

(more animals DSC_8691.JPG)

(It is morning and I'm writing about yesterday, importing pictures, having breakfast). I just looked at some of the pictuers and was reminded of David Chrisman's comments about the 'reveal' while I was trying to work on pictures from his wedding while on the plane and he was catching glimpses of the pictures. I realized that I was having that feeling. I need to look only at the pictures that reflect where I am in the narrative. Going ahead starts too many threads in my mind. Heck, writing while people are around and having life proceed is starting too many threads. Case in point:

"Spencer, I lost my eyeball, it was probably my eyeball you saw in the pool!" Maddy

"I know, we could make fake eyeballs!" Spencer (spencer says they saw an eyeball in the pool on Monday)

... (evening) It was a slow exit...we got to mezo...around noon. We stopped at the best ice cream place We dropped all the kids at the water park, went to the Eclipse Internet cafe and Heather checked her email while I worked on my Oracle article. Then we went to lunch at the Etteram Rozsa. It was really good. A very elegant place. We were there mid afternoon, so we had the room to ourselves. There was a gourmet menu, with multiple courses-prije fixe, or whatever.

I had 'small meats' over a homemade pasta thing which I couldn't figure out. Little lumps of noodle. It was tasty. Heather had something that included a roasted tomato, potatos, mushrooms and maybe chicken. She was also happy.

We shared a 'Rozsa' dessert...ice cream, some other stuff, fruit...and a little bear silhouette in chocolate powder, with a heart in the center.

Then we had a challenge, okay, I had a challenge, moving the car around, and then into the 250 forint pay lot, and we ended up parked literally closer to the restaurant than we had been...

We entered the pools outside of Mezokovesd. They are stunning! Their are on large landscaped grounds. Various pools scattered about. A circular pool (like the rim of a wheel) with a covered area, various mineral pools, of various temperatures, snack bars and such scattered conveniently around offering food and drinks at reasonable prices, no rules about 'no outside food or drink,' and just a great lot of fun.

The girls had dessert at Rozsa. This let them get out while the little kids and I got our fill of the pools. Maddy and Spencer made friends with two hungarians from Eger, they spoke a bit of English (far more than our Hungarian!), and had fun talking.

The kids made a pair of Canadian friends at their first visit to the park, and saw them again today.

After that we made our way home. We listened to 'Bearskin' (a grimms fairy tale) on the way. The kids were stellar from the time we left home until our return.

I was feeling funky, guilt about writing and stuff, so I went on a bike ride. I explored more of the dike roads, this time out of Negyes in a new direction.

The bugs were amazing, in a 'keep your mouth shut and breath shallowly' sort of way. I stopped at my turn around point to take a picture, until they started to devour my poor flesh.

Riding along the dirt and gravel dike roads is joyful. Life everywhere, birds, bugs, water, trees, hay rolls.

I then went to the pub, where I had some Fanta Narancs and played cards with Leah. A hungarian fellow had been buying beers for Molly and Leah.

A 1/4 of one was all it took her to get buzzed...

There was singing, where he tried to get the 'cute' hungarian to join in, but he was playing hard to get, or something. It turns out that he is the one who Molly has heard playing trumpet.

So I came home, washed, had potatos and vegetables for dinner. Spencer was asleep on the couch. I read goosberry park to Maddy, and then Heather was getting worried about the girls, it was 10:30 or almost.

So i wlaked to the pub, nobody there. Then I came back, got bug spray on, and went driving. I drove to Borsodivanka, thinking something might be open there, no go, I looked at skid marks, to see if they were off the road in a ditch. I was sad at the frogs I saw hopping on the road, and the assumption that I was probably running over some of them, and I was worried. I came home, left the car on the street and checked inside, then got back in, went down the street across from us, turned right on instict, and there they were...walking with the 'cute' hungarian boys.

... 1:02 am (the 29th) the girls just came in...and I finished my oracle article, at least another draft worth.

I also annoted the waypoints in the file hungary_5_mac_simple_gps.gpx. It amuses me, the file is 1999989 bytes...close to an odometer turning moment. Oh, and a silly cat is howling in the front.