Bowling, Burger King and Exhaustion

Peapod

July 2008 - September 2008

"We hardly knew ye"

My son has officially been labelled a tent murderer. Vic carefully made the repairs to the tent last week only to have Sawyer rip another hole in it a day and a half later. I know that this is very frustrating to Vic, but I guess that Sawyer hated being confined to the point of breaking out. He is now sleeping (or not, as the case is) in a toddler bed we purchased from some friends moving to Vancouver. I believe Sawyer may now be regretting this decision to ruin the tent as he has not really slept since. I think he just doesn't understand how to deal with freedom. He can move, so he does...even when it is after 9:00 at night or he is exhausted and in need of a nap. In his current state, he simply stumbles around deliriously and tells us that he is being deprived of milk and Dora. It has not been fun.

This lack of sleep does mean that we now have a series of photographs of Sawyer sleeping in random places. It seems that TV is hypnotic as most of the time, he falls asleep in front of it. We are trying to make a game of it: "Who can guess when Sawyer will nod off?" The locations usually remains unchanged, but the time is often very different. Yesterday it was 3:00 in the afternoon, the day before, it was 6:00 in the evening. He also will usually wind up asleep any time he is in the car. He also has a different idea about sleeping under the sheets as I discovered last night at 9:30.

Sawyer's freedom in his room has also revealed more needs for child proofing that we hadn't even considered when Ansley was this age. For some reason, Sawyer has decided clothes do not belong in a dresser, they obviously belong on the floor. All of the clothes except for his bathing suit, which has replaced his blanket as a sleeping device (?). I spent yesterday morning going through the room adding childproof locks and other devices to remove distractions and get him bored enough to sleep. This morning, I discovered my work was in vain, as clothes will fit through very small cracks and child beds can be moved surprisingly long distances. At least he is persistent, a trait that will come in handy later in life.

The week was not completely consumed with a tired boy, yesterday we decided to go bowling. There is a really nice bowling alley at the top of Barra Shopping that doesn't smell like cigarette smoke and caters to kids. They were shocked we didn't want to let Sawyer bowl his own game. I believe that Ansley may have found an activity to rival ballet and gymnastics in fun levels. The alley had automatic bumpers that came up when it was Ansley's turn. Have I ever told you that I have bowled a 200 before? I have...but it was a long time ago, and it appears that Vic and I have forgotten the fine art in the mean time. The scores yesterday were Chet - 86, Vic - 73, Ansley/Sawyer - 57. Sawyer really likes bowling as well, he just believes that he should bowl every frame. I'm trying to add video of the kids bowling this week, so I hope you enjoy it.

After bowling, we had a hankering for some American food, so we went downstairs in the mall to try the Burger King that just opened up here (first in Rio). The food was spot on, but the service had been Brazilianized. For starters, they hand you a menu when you get in line. They then have a waitress half way to the cashier that takes your order and hands you a number. Which you take to the cashier. The one that made us laugh was the drink station. They needed two people to get drinks for customers, but they still managed to screw up our orders (to be fair, the fault was probably our understanding of Portuguese). The drink station is in the background of the picture of Ansley. Note the lady on the left looking at me like I was a crazy tourist...she was mostly right. The bottom line is that between the servers and the chefs, there were probably 25-30 people working to get us our food. Very Brazilian.

Some final notes, the winner of the name the Venus Fly Plant contest was Ellie thanks to the fact that she was the only one that participated. The beast will from this point on be dubbed "Bupky". Sadly. we also lost both cars this week to corroded electrical cables. The Peugeot has been returned, but the Scenic is back in the shop now. Of everything in Brazil, the cars are our single greatest frustration here. Oh well, we're off to the beach. Hope everyone else is doing well.

Rain and Saturday Night Fun

With spring finally here, I thought I would focus this week's post on a typical Spring Saturday Night in Rio. Today's technology has allowed those of us in foreign climes to not miss a single pitch or snap; therefore, last night Vic and I went to dinner at a friend's apartment. Dinner was traditional Brazilian fare - Fried Chicken, Cajun Potato Salad and Jambalaya followed by the Auburn-LSU game. Almost everyone there had an affiliation to one team or the other so it was a very fun night despite the outcome (LSU won 26-21 0n a late touchdown). This was possible because we all have slingboxes - a device that allows us to access a cable box in the US over the internet. Other than the game, the weather this week was miserable. Thursday night, Vic and I went to a movie and actually wore sweatshirts and jeans. In our minds it was very necessary. It is amazing to me how fast we have acclimated to the weather here. In less than a year, we consider a 70 degree day downright chilly. Vic and Ansley made a shopping run to pick up some extra cold weather gear for the kids. Don't worry about us though, I am certain we will be in bathing suits on a beach or by the pool next week. That's just how the weather here goes. You can all point to this post in a couple of months when I am writing about how miserable the heat is without air conditioning. Bad weather means that the kids are stuck inside much more than usual with few outlets to release their pent up energy. This has unfortunately resulted in the demise of one of our favorite gadgets. Vic went to get Sawyer from his nap one day to find him released from his tent/bed. He has finally managed to rip out of it. We will mourn it's loss as it means we return to the days of finding Sawyer in various sleeping locations and listening to him play with his toys at 1 in the morning. Finally, I will mention one of my favorite things about Rio (and Vic's least favorite). There are no "boxed" foods here. You can't get pancake mix or cake mix or even Kraft Macaroni n' Cheese (never fear, we import). This means that the kids and I get some seriously good home cooked meals. Yesterday morning Vic made all of us buttermilk pancakes and this evening we are having home made meatballs. My new all-time favorite cake is her cheesecake. I don't think she appreciates having to put forth effort quite as much as the kids and I appreciate enjoying the results. This weeks pictures include a shots of Vic and Ansley making the pancakes, Sawyer impersonating a beached whale while watching TV, Sawyer prepping for the Auburn/LSU game, and the shell and the still unnamed venus fly-trap I mentioned last week. Hope everyone is well.

Downer week

No pictures this week, I haven't had a chance to take many. This was not what Vic or I would call a fun week; however, I am certain that it was a great week for Ansley. While I was sick offshore (a fairly unforgiving place for the sick), Ansley went to the first of two birthday parties she was invited to this week. A birthday party in Brazil is comparable to a wedding reception in the US in both size and cost. These parties typically have more food (especially candy) than you can imagine, a fully stocked bar, play grounds, carnival rides, and an army of babas (Brazilian Nanny's). The children were bussed to the party Wednesday directly from School. Apparently it was a lot of fun. The second birthday party occurred on Sunday while I was getting my chest x-rayed at the local hospital (I'm pretty sure the doctor's here know that expats are all 100% covered on costs and order anything you can imagine to take advantage of this). The party was held at a party house over the mountains east of us. It too was great as the goody bags had a month's supply of crafting tools. It also had some live entertainment in the form of horses that Ansley and her friends were able to feed. Birthday parties are great, but the highlight of the week for Ansley occurred on Saturday. In Ansley's words, all the princesses (and Mickey, Goofy and the gang) boarded a plane and flew to Rio from Orlando. Ansley is pretty sure they had to fly down on Thursday so they could rest for the show on Saturday. What were the princesses doing? Ice Skating...the greatest secret of Rio is the ice skating. They choose not to compete in the olympics because they would clobber everyone else. I was very impressed by the volume of loot Ansley returned with. This included a bucket of left over popcorn, a crown with Mouse ears, the program (we have read this before bed every night since - impressive as its in Portuguese), a T-Shirt, and some leftover cotton candy which Sawyer has declared to be food fit for the Gods. Needless to say, Disney's Princesses on Ice was a hit. I will mention one item from my time offshore. We have divers performing inspections on the FPSO (a converted oil tanker that now produces the oil and then stores it until a tanker comes and collects the cargo to take it to the customer). One of the things these divers have found is that there are clam (or possibly Oyster) shells. They are many different colors and have growths that resemble stalagmites. I was able to bring one home with me and it is outside drying off and decomposing by the smell of it. I think everyone offshore (about 80 people in all) had at least 5 shells a piece. I am also taking this opportunity to introduce our newest pet. They are lean and green and have an appetite beyond belief. At the plant store last week, we found a Venus Fly Trap. It's growing quite fast, and I am certain it has quite a collection of bugs to choose for dinner (its sitting next to the decomposing shell mentioned above). We have yet to think of a name, so, if any of you have suggestions, we are listening. The topper of this glorious week occurred on Thursday when I got back onshore. Vic's car broke down. Vic's car is the equivalent of a Ford Escort Mini-Van. It's also our "large, family car". With her car broke down, we had to use my car for everything. My car is approximately the same size as a mini-cooper and has power nothing - not windows, locks, seats or steering. It doesn't even have a radio, yet we were able to triumphantly load all of us into the car with a stroller and run some errands on Saturday morning. It was quite the feat. Life from Rio rolls on, hope everyone is well.

Kicking it off (for real)

Well, Vic started this blog in May and we have both sat on it until now. My brother's blog from his trip to Italy has forced my hand. I will try to update weekly with a blurb about our week's adventure's (there is always one) and a couple of pictures. Since the last post we have finished a school year, been back to the US (Vic and the kids were there for two months), seen Niteroi (there was a nice building), and spent several nice weekends with my dad while he has been here for his monthly work trip.

Museu do Arte Contemporaneao (Niteroi)

These last couple of weeks have really featured several interesting animal encounters. We woke up on a rainy Saturday two weeks ago to a horrible raucous in the street. When we got out there, we discovered that there were two parrots on the roof of the neighbors house. The sound they were making made us think Walker had gotten out of the yard and was terrorizing the street chickens (yes, we have street chickens). Parrots are just that loud. The one seemed to be exploring the chimney as a nesting spot. I had not considered why one would need a chimney in Rio until I typed the word, but there you go.

Parrot's on neighbor's roof

The second animal encounter featured several ROUS's (Princess Bride reference here). Vic and Sawyer were picking Ansley and a friend up from school, when they noticed a pod of 10-15 capybara's grazing peacefully next to the road. Vic of course stopped to take a series of pictures that I found impressive, but, I am certain, the locals thought were the work of one more crazy expat.

ROUS's