xtcian

No road-trippin' for me; I'm chilling out in Bangkok with the tiny babe (or sweating, rather than chilling). But Better Half just flew TO the States last night with our two older chitlins to do the annual summer homeleave roadshow: Ohio, to see his side of the fam, then flying down to Florida to see my parents. No time for my hometown of DC this trip, but when I bring the babe for his inaugural U.S. visit this October, we'll hit it.

While over there, BH will pick up the Obama Mama T-shirt I ordered from Cafe Press.

If any regular xtcian readers head to the Big Mango this summer, let me know! Matt, if you show up, I'll stand you a beer while we square off over the presidential race. :)

Making our annual pilgrimage to Mercer, Wisconsin later this summer. Home of supper clubs, Northwoods bars and family cabins. A place where you can buy a round of drinks and get change back from a $10. Can't wait, I wish I could spend a month there.

High ga$ price$ = no road tripping, alas.

Except: our trip next month to Syracuse to take our "baby daughter" (sob) to her freshman year of college. Break out the Kleenex; Mom will be a waterworks for this one!

Yeah, kid! We are road-trippin' from Charlotte to CT later next week; 700 miles of fun each way, but this is always the time of year we feel validated for having a minivan. We are going to head into NYC some to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium and go out for my BIL's birthday. Restaurant suggestions, anyone?
On the way back, we're going to spend the weekend in DC.

Safe travels!

Hey, Lyle, one of my roommates from UNC moved to Bangkok last year for work (Unilever). Though, I think she's moving to Singapore in 6 months.

Only a little -- couple trips to Ocean City Md for the annual beach fix and ocean staredown. In September, though, heading up to Baraboo Wi for the 40th anniversary reunion of Clown College. Yup!

We're in CO right now. Did a fabulous drive from Copper Mtn to Independence Pass yesterday. The scenery was spectacular. Went to my first ever rodeo last night. All of the cowboys and girls wore pink and he horses were adorned in pink as well. It was a heaping slice of Americana.

Also going to New Orleans at the end of the month for the Satchmo Fest to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We have our favorite room with a balcony on Frenchman Street. It should be hot and sticky...YUM!!!!

off to beijing for the olympics in a few wks!

Off to Vegas for some much needed rest and distraction! in a few weeks. yahoooooooo

Just got back from a family reunion in Minneapolis over the 4th, but no more trips planned for this summer. Every fall the wife and I go hiking/leaf peeping in VT or NH, except this year we're going to Norway. Heard it was pretty grand in places. Still researching the details.

Lyle, I accept your offer! Very kind. Though I'm not too enthused about the election. For me it's a choice between someone who's basically a decent guy but has politics I disagree with nearly entirely, and a guy whose politics I can mostly stomach, but has serious character flaws. I don't expect MD to be in play anyway, so I may vote for a non-contender.

Two weeks upcoming at OIB (Brunswick Co.), NC and Sandbridge, VA---some of the beary best beach baby. 'Road-tripping' might be romanticizing the dizzy driving details, especially with kids, but dig it nonetheless!!

Happy vacations all!

already had awesome wild dunes week with dear friends. next stop: ireland and england latter piece of august. it is our first time taking two small ones across the pond -- we shall see how it goes. (smile)

happy family time, all!!

Ian, how do you feel about that stuffed puppy in the background? At first, we thought it was great...until we realized that it's more sensitive to touch than a preemie with eczema. Ours never shuts up, and when it says, "Hug me!" I just want to kick it. Hard.

Scruggs -- Everyone seems to be moving to Singapore, China, India, Malaysia, etc. Thailand seems to be sliding economically and the political situation is unstable (whispers of another coup...), so many folks are in your friend's shoes. My husband's company has pressured us to go to Singapore but as the kids are happily ensconced in school here, we've (so far) succeeded in staying put.

Matt, I hear you, dude, despite my feeling measured enthusiasm (albeit muted a bit over recent weeks) for Obama. However the change alone, the fresh blood it will bring to Washington regardless of who wins, will be good, yes? Aside from that, visiting Norway will be an interesting experience, and you'll get to breathe much cleaner, cooler air than we've got here. Enjoy!

I heard that the word "stay-cation" has entered U.S. lexicon, for people staying at home to relax instead of traveling during their vacations, due to fuel prices. True?

Look at Lucy! Kids certainly have more to do in the car today. When I was a little girl, we didn't have no fancy schmancy 'puters. We got a magnet set in a plastic case from some local five-and-dime...and we LIKED it!!

Anyway, the hubby and I drove to Burlington, Vermont over July 4 weekend. Visited the Ben & Jerry factory, saw a minor league baseball game, and walked to the lakefront. It was a fun three days. Pictures of cows, farms, hills, etc. are on my blog, if anyone cares to see.

We'll probably drive around New England in fall to see the leaves.

Claudia - OH GOD ABSOLUTELY. I even wrote about it years ago here (mistakenly thought it was a rabbit):

http://www.xtcian.com/arch/002389.php

We call it Chip the Dog, after Lucy's godfather, who gave it to her.

My favorite line:
Chip the Dog: HUG ME!
Lucy: I can't, you're not real!

does moving (back) to brooklyn count? or conventioneering? if anyone's in the media tent in denver or minneapolis -- scuze me, st. paul -- swing by and say hello!

We've got that damn dog, too. If, IF you are lucky enough to turn it off, it jumps back to life when you set it back down on the ground. You need a harness like the one Tom Cruise had in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE and even then you've got to pray that a dribble of sweat doesn't fall from your nose or else you have to start all over.

Lyle, I thought the Big Mango was some joint around DC, but now it dawns on me you meant Thailand. Haven't been there since the early 90s (Pattaya/Phuket) and probably won't make it back anytime soon. Oh well, I still mean to crash an Xtcian blog party some day (under a pseudonym!).

I may not like (or vote for) McCain -- the way a person treats his family says more about his true self than anything he does professionally -- but if one of the two are going to be nominating judges/justices and leading our foreign policy, I guess I'd rather it be him.

wow, i love hearing about other peoples' comings and goings...we roadtripped from boston to maine for our annual july 4th celebration of my mom's birthday. and i returned to LA only to turn around again to begin shuttling back and forth every two weeks to austin for work. i'm excited, though, that this week, i strong-armed our travel gal to let me stay at the san jose hotel. a bit of heaven while working too many hours a day.

end of the summer, i'm back to fiji for my last stint with the tribewanted.com sustainable tourism project. and i'm hoping we'll have raised the money for the school from the baby zaishu sales at www.reformschoolrules.com, so that i can present that to the school as part of the two year anniversary festivities. thanks again, ian and tessa - and lucy! - for supporting me with that.

safe travels to all!!

made it from SC to AK in 6.5 days, a personal best. turns out, gas is expensive in the Yukon. fairbanks feels like home. eat wild salmon, people.