The Mauritian-American Chronicles

Zot Mauriciens

2009-03-27T18:06:00.011-05:00

That's Creole for other Mauritians. The French is les autres Mauriciens. So the Creole takes the s from les and the aut from autres and spells it phonetically in English.

Anyway, here are some longtime friends of ours in Mauritius. Some haven't changed. Some have.

Sylvio Salomon

Corinne (Salomon) and Ivan Catherine

Merlin Armance, Kyle Catherine, and Joanne (Salomon) Armance

Bruno and Marie-Claire Toi

Marjorie Rima, David Roméo, et zot

Here Comes Johnny

2009-03-23T16:53:00.005-05:00

Woo hoo!

For those who are American football newbies, the quarterback is the one throwing the ball, the center is the one hiking the ball back between his legs, the receiver is the one the quarterback is throwing the ball at, and the safety is the one trying to stop the receiver from catching the ball and trying to catch it himself. I'm the one wearing the solid navy blue shirt. With way too much blond hair.

Baby Brother

2009-03-13T17:25:00.006-05:00

Well, yes, the baby is the biggest. And his voice is the boomingest. Denis and Hana are a dashing couple and can they ever sing. They sang at our wedding, and then were married the next year. They have no kids yet, and we figure they are the most likely candidates to visit us next.

Denis worked as a supervisor in a textile factory and was making good money as a young single man. Marie-Josée and Jean-Marc were operating the family pig breeding and farming operation. Once that became exceedingly profitable due to changes in import rules, Denis joined Jean-Marc in the family business. However, in 2007, the tides turned when African Swine Fever found its way to Mauritius, and wiped out over half of the pig population, including those of Denis, Jean-Marc, and ultimately those of Medgé and Jacques as well.

Having just built an impressive house largely himself just prior to getting married, Denis was able to secure a job as a mason. He is getting back into the family business as it is currently on the way back to where it was before the trouble.

Sweet and Sour

Favorite Things

Man of the House

2009-03-06T17:31:00.004-06:00

Ruby and Jean-Marc Tanner

Phanuel and Lydia

Jean-Marc, Sammy Sosa look-alike, is Isabelle's older brother by five years, and he lives in the house in which he, Medgé, Isabelle and Denis grew up. Alongside the house in an apartment is Marie-Josée (when she's not with us, that is), and Denis and Hana are in a house that Denis built on top of the original house.

Jean-Marc followed his father Joseph to work in Israel back in the 1990s. It was there where Jean-Marc became a Christian. He preached to and had a hand in converting the rest of the family, but sadly, Joseph also had a hand in converting the family when he died in a motorcycle accident in 1999.

As a result, Jean-Marc, who married Ruby in 2002 (I was there), was there for us to fulfill his patriarchal role in the family and walk Isabelle down the aisle in our wedding. It was nice for us because he was able to bring his own tux. I guess it also didn't hurt my chances with the family that he was a newlywed while I was looking for approval from the family for Isabelle's and my engagement.

About one year ago during an outing to the beach, Phanuel was brought by his cousin to his father, lifeless and feared drowned. We are so thankful that nearby tourists saw what had happened and were able to revive Phanuel.

Les Vigilantes

2009-03-04T20:42:00.008-06:00

Medgé and Jacques Lavigilante

Jonathan Leutéritz and Matthieu Lavigilante

Adeline Lavigilante and Julia

Chloe and Julie Lavigilante

Introducing...Matthieu, Adeline, and Julie Lavigilante, and re-introducing Medgé and Jacques, their parents, and my sister-in-law and brother-in-law. Jacques and Medgé have been a great help to our Mauritius project, and so have their children. Adeline in particular spent many nights with Isabelle and helped take care of Julia and Chloe. Julie contributed much with her talent as a chef, and Matthieu also did his share to entertain and otherise care for our girls.

La Famille

2009-03-02T18:08:00.011-06:00

Julia and Grand-mère

Jacques with Chloe

Medgé and Denis, wiggin' out

Ok, so we needed a way to organize and present our photos and video of our clan in Mauritius. The ones who have come to visit us here in America are Isabelle's mother, Marie-Josée, and Isabelle's sister and brother-in-law, Medgé and Jacques. No one else in her family has yet come to visit us. Isabelle has two brothers as well, and each is married. Her younger brother, Denis, is married to Hana, and they have no children. Her older brother, Jean-Marc, is married to Ruby, and they have two young children, Lydia and Phanuel. Medgé and Jacques have three teenagers, Julie, Adeline, and Matthieu.

Isabelle's mother has one sister, Maryse, and she and her husband and kids all live in Mauritius. Isabelle's father, who was killed in 1999 in a motorcycle accident, was one of five children. Two of his sisters and their families have lived in Victoria, Australia for many years. Isabelle's cousins Florine and Fabrice live there. Florine is married to Lance, and they have one daughter, Angelique. Florine's BROTHER, Fabrice, perhaps out of necessity with a name like that down under there by the outback, is an accomplished competitive bodybuilder.

One of Isabelle's dad's sisters, Monique, moved to Quebec and married a French-Canadian, Pierre Roberge, and they have four children. The youngest, the only girl, is Kalyna Roberge, a reigning silver medalist from the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, for the short track speed skating relay. She will be skating in Vancouver in the 2010 Olympics.

Isabelle's dad's remaining sibling also lived and died in Mauritius. Two of Isabelle's cousins, Clive and Clara still live next door to the family home. Their sister, Sarah Jane, lives in Dubai, UAE, and Isabelle got to visit her there in January. I'm still so jealous.

New Year's Ham

2009-02-16T16:12:00.004-06:00

Here's another of Chloe on a test drive...

Facebook Photos

2009-02-06T09:26:00.002-06:00

We posted some recent photos from our travels in Facebook. We used to upload everything to yahoo photos but then they closed up shop, and we were guided toward Flicker, but we never got into it, so it looks like Facebook will be our destination of choice for photos. We threw the videos in my last post out there as well, as well as the video we have of Chloe walking for the first time.

Sega!

2009-01-29T21:44:00.005-06:00

Here's Chloe, getting the hang of things:

And here's Julia, a bit more cautious, but also bustin' a move:

Sega is the national cultural music and dance of Mauritius. Historically, it is the event for which slaves in Mauritius (ancestors of today's Creoles, such as Isabelle and her family) would gather during the night. Men were chained to a ball on their right ankle and so danced accordingly, while the women were unencumbered, and also danced accordingly. The men's steps have been carried forward until the present time.

It was hard to believe the changes that take place over nine weeks for a three-year-old and a one-year-old. Now I'm trying to find my rhythm and some discipline with my time again after languishing in my bachelor shoes those nine weeks. Too much play and work with the girls now that their jetlag doesn't knock them out by 7 pm.

Kiwis, Hong Kongers, & Us

2009-01-24T21:46:00.007-06:00

Here are our friends we met in Hong Kong last weekend.

Kiwis (Brenda, Amber, Richard & Jonathan)

Hong Kongers (Peter & Anita)

We really enjoyed our time in Hong Kong. Peter and Anita, upon hearing we would have one less day than we thought in Hong Kong, took us on a single day's grand tour of Hong Kong like no other. We ate wonderful home town food, with chopsticks of course, and took a ferry from Kowloon, the part of Hong Kong where we were staying, to Hong Kong Island in order to visit the Peak and truly see the town. We made it back to the Kowloon side just in time for the nightly 8 pm laser show which involves at least a dozen buildings in a coordinated masterpiece set to music on our side.

On Sunday, we met up with my friends the Leotas, who just happened to be visiting parents/grandparents in Hong Kong for the first time in four years. They are from New Zealand in case the Kiwi reference got past you. We attended the Hong Kong Church of Christ, which was a very lively and uplifting experience. Then we went out for lunch and did a little shopping but no buying.

So this week, I arrived back in the US late Monday night. Isa, the girls, and Zoz (Marie-Josee, Isa's mother) finally arrived last night (Friday night). My week spent waiting was rather eventful. Tuesday was the inauguration. What a party. Wednesday, I found out that my manager, and my manager's manager's manager were getting laid off in the first wave of Bank Of America's promised 30,000 over the next three years. My manager's manager used to be my manager and is again now. Thursday, news broke that the CEO of Merrill Lynch, John Thain, had been a bad boy. BOA just acquired/saved Merrill in Q4 of 2008. Mr. Thain spent $1.2 million to redecorate his office last year, and he authorized and paid $4 billion in bonuses in December, during a quarter in which Merrill lost $15 billion, so that BOA would not be able to put a stop to it which they would have had the bonuses been scheduled for January which is the customary timing for such disbursements. So Mr. Thain also got laid off.

Friday, the weary travelers arrived, altogether, but their bags, thanks to some changes in the flights they took as opposed to the flights they were scheduled to take, came at all different times. One came on the flight before theirs. Two came on the flight after theirs (which was their originally scheduled flight). The last came on the flight after theirs but then got loaded back onto the next flight to Chicago. So we arranged first for it to be delivered when it arrived, at midnight or so, and then reconsidered and requested that it be delivered this morning after 8. Instead, we got a call at 2:30 am and it was delivered then. This was among Julia waking up to vomit earlier than that, and then to eat cereal later than that. Eleven hours of jetlag is no picnic. I managed to stay in bed until 10 am, though, somehow, and woke up to home made waffles, so I can't complain. Tonight, Julia and Josee fell asleep before dinner was ready at 7 pm or so.

We finally got our pictures on the PC after these many months, so we'll try to post some more of the best of those in the near future.

Hong Kong Amigos

2009-01-18T08:29:00.002-06:00

Here we are in our hotel room with Peter and Anita Leung, our good friends who returned here after living in St. Louis. Yesterday they showed us the town, and today we met up with Brenda (Smith) and Richard Leotta, and their two beautiful kids, Amber and Jonathan. No pictures for now, but they are coming soon...

In Guangzhou

2009-01-13T16:06:00.005-06:00

Well, here we are. Everything has gone pretty much as planned. I arrived, made it through customs, collected my bags, got some yuan at the Citibank ATM I spotted, and found the taxi stand outside the international terminal at the airport. I was able to communicate with the driver just enough to get him to take me to the Guangzhou Hotel in Haizhu Sqaure. It was at this point I discovered what seems to be really valuable in Guangzhou: change for a 100-yuan bill. I got 1000 yuan (~$145), and it came out all in 100 yuan bills. When the cab fare turned out to be 110 yuan and I gave him 200 yuan, we appeared to be at an impasse. The driver was carrying on and pulling small yuan bills out from anywhere he could find them, but it didn't look like he was going to come up with 90 yuan. So, I offered him $1 rather than the second 100-yuan bill. That is worth almost 10 yuan and he took it.

I got my hotel room, had to change rooms because they gave me one with two single beds, started charging all my dead or dying portable devices, and laid down for a ninety minute nap until it was time to return to the airport and pick up Isabelle. I went back downstairs, caught a cab, and was back on my way to the airport. On the way, the driver had to pay a toll, and he got into a five minute argument when he tried to pay it with a 100-yuan bill. They were really going at it so I leaned over in the back seat and showed my perturned pale face to the toll both operator, a young lady, and that seemed to sway her and we were on the road again. We made it back to the airport. This time the cab fare was 99 yuan. Whew! I made sure to get my single yuan bill in change.

I found my way to the exit area outside of baggage claim and customs where Isabelle should have been walking out. Her flight had disppeared off the arrival screen and I was getting nervous, but then she appeared. What a sight for sore eyes.

We got back in line for a taxi. This time some rogue driver came up and asked us where we wanted to go, and offered to take us there for 200 yuan. It was a good thing I had already been around the block. So we waited for an authorized cab. This time, we could not get the driver to understand that we wanted to go to Guangzhou Hotel in Haizhu Square. We wound up calling our contact here, Kiki, and she was able to get the message across to the driver. If there was ever a time to pay for a little international roaming, that was it.

I got caught up with my bride and gave her the grand tour from the back of that taxi, and managed to recognize some of what we passed, and we arrived at the hotel. This time, the meter read 86, and so I hoped with whatever tax had been getting added that 100-yuan would cover it. The driver started squabbling in Chinese and I could tell it wasn't enough, and then he held up one finger. Good answer! I passed him what change I had, which was the lone yuan from the ride back to the airport.

So, by now we're getting what we came for. It is good to be back together!

Seoul Man

2009-01-11T18:37:00.003-06:00

Please forgive the redundant nature of my post titles, but this one actually sums it up pretty well. I am a man, and I'm in Seoul. There isn't much else to say, as my tank is about empty. It is a beautiful airport, and they told us the temperature outside was about 15 degrees Farenheit but in here there is no way to know. Glass everywhere, Gloria Jean's, Caribou Coffee, and a Smoothies R Us. There's even a food court that promises "western food." I already had a bagel and cream cheese with a coffee from Gloria Jean's as my second breakfast of the day, or maybe it's the breakfast for Sunday that I didn't have since Sunday got swallowed up by the International Date Line. No, I guess it's just a matter of swapping eating for sleeping, since I'll probably double up on at least two meals when I come back and get a 48-hour Monday.

I called in my Discover Card as lost since I used it to get Burger King in St. Louis but then couldn't find it to pay for a chili-cheese hot dog in LA. Between those times, I was turning my backpack inside out looking for headphones which I did not find. However, I did find my blue-tooth headset which has been AWOL for most of the last year. Then while waiting for the Korea flight, I decided I wanted to take another peek at my passport and the China visa therein, and what do you know but it had swallowed the Discover Card at some point.

So I guess it has been a relatively eventful trip so far, for just being in airports and on planes, and the wins and losses are about canceling each other out. We will see how things go once we're on the street in a Chinese city the size of Paris...

Dubai Girl, China Boy

2009-01-10T10:04:00.004-06:00

I survived Christmas and New Year's apart from my girls. Dad came by from December 24-29 and we had a North Dakotan bachelor Christmas. It was fun. We watched movies Benjamin Button (bleah) and Crash (wow!) and played cribbage and darts.

Today at 5, I will be leaving for the airport to fly to Guangzhou, China, via LA, and Seoul, Korea. Isabelle arrived yesterday in Dubai, UAE, and she will be leaving there and meeting me in Guangzhou on Monday. She is staying with her cousin Sarah Jane who has been living in Dubai for a couple of years. Tonight they are on a safari and they are apparently having a wonderful time. Isabelle told me she wishes I was there, as do I.

After Guangzhou, we will make our way to Hong Kong. It's a second honeymoon for us. And it's a chance to visit friends who are living in or visiting Hong Kong. That's right, the kids are staying with tante Medge and ton-ton Jacque in Mauritius. In Hong Kong, our good friends Peter and Anita Leung will be there. Peter went to the University of Texas, lived in the US for 20 years, and became a US citizen, but soon after they got married they decided to move back to Hong Kong. Also, a friend I met in St. Louis whom I've visited in New Zealand will be visiting in Hong Kong while we're there. Richard and Brenda (Smith) Leota and their kids Amber and Jonathan will be visiting family.

On January 19, I will be heading back to St. Louis, and Isabelle will be heading back to Dubai. Then she makes her way back to Mauritius to pick up the kids, and her mother. They will leave Mauritius on January 22 and arrive back in St. Louis on January 23. We hope.

Trip pix

2008-12-18T21:58:00.016-06:00

Well--here are some of Alec's pix, with minimal commentary where needed.

Caro, Tony & Chris, before scuba diving

Canden, Elie, Stephanie & Samuel

Hana and Denis (Isa's younger brother)

With Sylvio, Marianne, & Alec

Singing at the Cascavelle Church

Jonathan, Caro, Coline, Tony, Noah & Joey

Isa & the luckiest guy in the world

The Chorale in Marseille

Philippe, Dolores, Nathan, Katie & Craig

Craig, Chris & the Algerians

Emilie, Katie, Esther & Craig

Chapelle Du Fuveau, Marseille, France

Chris & Justin Dauner, our host

Chris & Craig at the Continental Divide

Not Dead Yet

2008-11-30T18:27:00.003-06:00

Whew! Where did November go? Oh yeah, let's see...let me summarize here. I almost went 0 for November on posts but I will sneak this one in and try to cover the highlights and lowlights.

First let me explain that I was out of the country until November 15, and now I'm home alone. Yes, I left my family on some island somewhere. So life is a wholly different set of concerns for me than what I'm used to. No more brushing Julia's teeth, washing Julia's hands, encouraging Julia's toilet training efforts, reading Julia's books to her, etc. No more clowning around with Chloe, holding her hands while Chloe practices walking, etc. No more kissing and other activities with Isabelle. For the time being, that is. I am reduced to picking up after myself, cooking for or otherwise feeding myself, clothing and doing laundry for myself, and finding ways to spend my time all by myself.

I was single for 35 years before getting married, but somehow I can't just slide back into my old habits. I am managing to watch football I care about on TV again, but otherwise, I can't imagine how I used to watch so much football I didn't care about or other crap on TV. Nor can I imagine spending entire evenings playing word games via the Internet (WordOx and Scrabble). I like having my family dominate my time and energy, it turns out.

So, this Thanksgiving weekend, I had a pretty good one. An extended African American family at our church invited me to join them for their feast on Thursday itself. They told me to come hungry and I'm glad I did because it was delicious.

Friday, I had to work, and I thought I would get out early enough to join a Hungarian gathering at the home of some others from church. But things didn't work out like I expected and I missed it, so I crunched leaves in the yard with my mower (leaf blowing and/or bagging is for saps, it turns out). Then I came back inside and decided to watch ABC News. Only it turned out that the Nebraska-Colorado game which I had forgotten about was just winding down. I hope you got to see the highlights. Nebraska's kicker, Henery, booted a 57 yard field goal to put Nebraska ahead 33-31 with about two minutes left, which is when I started watching. On the second or third play, Colorado's QB had his pass batted up in the air, and a great big defensive lineman grabbed it, and started rumbling for the end zone. For many of us, this caused flashbacks to a game against Texas Tech a couple of years ago that would have been won by Nebraska had a defensive lineman who got his hands on the ball in the last minute simply fallen to the ground to clinch the victory but who instead fumbled the ball and the game away. But this time, our big guy took off and had only the QB to beat. The QB caught him, but got stiff armed and bounced right off our guy's legs, and our guy took it on in to seal the victory. It was a great finish.

So then on Saturday, I got out early and crunched some more leaves. Oh yeah--this is all in response to a letter I got from the city of Crestwood while I was out of the country stating that I was in violation of a statute requiring that I keep my yard in a "clean, safe and sanitary condition" by having "limbs and debris" in my back yard. Sanitary? Really? Anyway I got the log pile in pretty good shape and mowed behind it for the first time in a while, and I went out and mowed behind the back fence which had been cleared of much of its brush when Isabelle's sister was here. Then I remembered that oh, yeah, isn't the cable that supplies my house out here exposed by the sidewalk somewhere back here? Yes it is, and sure enough, I severed it. Panic set in. No Internet!? No cable TV (no big deal). No Vonage!!! I called my electrician to see if he could stop by on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, but when he didn't answer, I decided to try to fix it myself. The first couple of attempts were unsuccessful but then the third time I was out of slack and I left a bit more wire exposed and it worked! Whew. I hope it holds up. I'm almost ready to give up on the cable company, but not any second like that.

Today, I managed to get some packages in the mail, and do a little Christmas shopping. How did I ever fall so far behind on blogging? I'm also behind on phone calls I need to make. I am on the phone with Isabelle daily. And Saturday morning we had a webcam session and got to see each other which was a treat.

Last weekend, I attended a guys weekend in Harrisburg, home of Lance. Scott and Mike also came. Scott and Ann's blog has a link right over there and they have a cute new little guy named Nathaniel to keep them hopping. Mike works at GM so there may be hard times ahead there. Scott, Lance and I went to church there where Lance is a member at Harrisburg Christian Church and it was cool to take it all in since the Christian Churches are first cousins to the Churches of Christ where I am a member.

Before that was the trip. As I mentioned in my last post, we (our family) had a few days in Northern France, and then we and Alec Hill had eight days in Mauritius, and then Alec and I had eight days in Marseille with a visit to the Ardeche reason in the middle of France.

I will do justice to the trip in upcoming posts with photos from Alec's camera, since I could not do justice to it otherwise. Isabelle has our camera.

I should be able to find time to do this again before Christmas....Dad visits then...there's a CFS (Christian Family Services) trivia contest on Dec. 7....I hope to visit Tom in Mt. Carmel the weekend of Dec. 14...Mom visits sometime...

Heading Out

2008-10-24T22:40:00.002-05:00

We are almost out the door. Tomorrow morning we will be on our way to the airport for a big, big trip. Yes, we Mauritian-Americans are about to live up to our moniker. But not without a few built-in detours.

Tomorrow we start in St. Louis, and then via Chicago and London, we will find ourselves in Paris, hoping to make it the rest of the way to our dear friends' Alisa and Frederic's home an hour away. See their link to the left for a window into what's in store.

Wednesday, we return to London and meet up with our good friend and dear brother Alec Hill, also from St. Louis. From there, we take the twelve hour flight to Mauritius. Over the last few months, numerous rendezvous's with us have uncovered Alec's gift for language and given him a reasonable foundation for being Christ's ambassador from Mid-County to its mission works in Mauritius and Marseille, France.

On November 8, Alec and I will make our way to Marseille. We believe some tremendous time of mutual encouragement is in store for us, and we are especially looking forward to visiting Camp Harmonie in the French Alps and serving in whatever way we can.

At the same time, a huge void in my person will begin to be felt as Isabelle, Julia and Chloe will be staying in Mauritius until January 23. Alec and I will return to St. Louis on November 15.

Look for some posts along the way over the next three weeks. I wonder if our country will look the same after three weeks of additional financial havoc and a quite spirited presidential election. May God our rock enable us to weather the storm.

That's Our House!

2008-09-24T21:35:00.003-05:00

I don't know if everyone knows to do this, but click "That's Our House" above to see what I'm talking about. Clicking "Stanley" below takes you to a CNN story that was the basis for that post, but clicking "That's Our House" takes you to a public 360 view from the middle of our street that includes our house, courtesy of Google maps (you may have to click the A, and then "Street View"). I checked my friend's house in Detroit, and there's a view right in front of his house also (Dave, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get ya...) but I checked my Dad's house in Lincoln, Nebraska and the closest you could get was the nearest major thoroughfare.

Isabelle is gone with the girls visiting Grandma. So lonely...so lonely...so lonely.......

Alive and Thriving

2008-09-02T12:36:00.006-05:00

David Allen Harrison is not the kind of name you want to try to track down on the internet. When his AOL address, MTMDavid@aol.com (MTM = Marvin The Martian), went defunct about 9 years ago, I lost touch with him, a former college roommate. At the time I last saw him, in 1998, he was about to get married.

I went to great lengths to try to connect with him again, even signing up at Classmates.com for his high school class with the name Marvin Martian. No luck.

Well, this spring, after I had given up, another former college roommate of both Dave's and mine at different times managed to track Dave down via Linked In, the social network for career professionals. So we found out that he was living in Beaverton, OR. Isabelle and the kids and I were already planning to visit my sister Courtney in Cottage Grove, so we worked in a visit with Dave and his family. Yesterday he and his wife Cindy celebrated their tenth anniversary, and their five-year-old twins, Leah and Samantha, start kindergarten today.

We just got back from the trip yesterday. Here are some photos.

Chloe and Julia on the beach

Us at Crater Lake

Aunt Courtney and Her Nieces

Stanley?

2008-08-09T07:36:00.002-05:00

Black gold. Oil, that is. North Dakota tee.

What? We won't see any new Beverly Hillbillies, but I am forecasting a number of Phoenix Farmers.

I actually did live in western North Dakota for a summer during the last supposed oil boom, which turned out to be a bust. In the summer of 1982 when I was 14, I lived with my grandparents, worked at my Aunt and Uncle's drive-in restaurant, The Twist, and played baseball in Watford City. Stanley was one of the teams we played, so I've been there. I couldn't tell you the first detail about it though.

I'm just hoping that when it's all said and done, everybody remembers that you cannot serve God and money.

Three Babes and a Daddy

2008-07-26T23:54:00.008-05:00

We finally got some recent photos off our camera and onto our PC. Am I a lucky guy or what?

I've decided that I have no problem if Julia wants to play hard to get, even with me.

Chloe, on the other hand, is still permitted to be a pushover for now.

Mama has to watch her step, for obvious reasons...

Our Little Flyers

2008-07-03T07:55:00.002-05:00

Well, we made it to North Dakota and back, but not without a mishap or two or three.

As usual, we were scrambling to get out of the house to catch our plane. I was collecting the packed bags and putting them in the car, the same bags we took to Florida in May for a trip one day shorter in duration. To my surprise, our carry on bag was empty. Isabelle claimed we didn't need it. It was getting too late to argue but I did express my concern over whatever was in that bag for our May trip that was not coming with us for this trip.

We made it to the airport, and to our plane bound for the Twin Cities. Everything was going fine, Julia by the window, me holding Chloe in the middle, and Isabelle on the aisle with her tray down for the three drinks we had just been served. Then I noticed a two-tone effect in Julia's jeans that I hadn't noticed before. Remembering that she had guzzled down the contents of her travel cup which had been full of sugar-free lemonade rather than water, I quickly surmised what had happened.

Isabelle reacted with greater surprise than I expected and even disbelief. Uh oh. You guessed it--no carry on bag, no change of clothes for Julia. So we made the best of it. I held Isabelle's tray with our drinks on it while Isabelle squeezed out of the seat and stood up in the aisle. Now I had to figure out how to get Julia over to Isabelle while holding Chloe. So I decided to put Chloe in Isabelle's seat. As I did that Chloe straightened up and managed to kick the full cup of Pepsi all over Isabelle's seat.

Things were getting desperate. I had the only dry seat left. We cleaned up Isabelle's seat, and put down a couple of blankets, got Julia out of her wet jeans and sat back down and drank our remaining drinks. Gladly, we were in the second row from the back. But, the flight was almost over and Julia's jeans were still soaked. We decided we had to put them back on Julia while we went through the MSP airport looking for toddler clothes. As I was putting Julia's jeans back on her, she saw that they were wet and began repeating, rather loudly, "It's dirty...It's dirty...It's dirty..."

We did find a nice Elmo outfit for $12 in the airport and got Julia all cleaned up and changed. Then, at the gate for our next plane, just as we heard the first boarding announcement, we discovered that both our girls needed their diapers changed, pronto. I changed Julia there on the floor, without any trouble. Then as Isabelle changed Chloe, Julia observed the obvious, and began repeating, again quite loudly, "It's yucky...It's yucky...It's yucky..."

As might be expected, from then on our flight experiences only got better.

Avis Rosella Rogness, 7/24/1916 - 6/21/2008

2008-06-25T13:44:00.003-05:00

We are on our way to North Dakota to pay our respects to my dear grandmother.

Goodbye, Grandma.

Whistler's Mother's Son

2008-06-07T11:07:00.002-05:00

Doesn't everyone have some superhero quality? I'm not that tall, or that strong, or that fast, but there is something at which I am unsurpassed as far as I know. So that makes it rather unofficial, I realize, but still...

The other night I stopped by the cleaners' to pick up my shirts and pants. I wear stuff over and over in the winter time, but with Chloe around they get stinky for reasons that aren't directly my fault, but anyway...

I stepped up to the counter, and the lady behind it, exclaimed, "Whose are these?" and pointed at a handful of freshly cleaned clothes on hangers sitting on the rack right there. "They must be hers!" she continued, as she gestured towards a car that was backing out of the parking space directly in front of the door, windows up (as far as I could tell).

I sprung into action. I walked out the front door, and, as she had just shifted the car out of reverse and into drive, I whistled. Twice. Loud. She looked at me, and I pointed at her clothes, and she smiled, nodded and parked.

"Thanks," she said sheepishly as she walked in and got her clothes. "No problem," I replied. Later the cleaning store lady thanked me again. "I sure can't whistle like that," she said. No she can't. :-)

Eating, Etc.

2008-06-05T17:23:00.003-05:00

Here are our little girls in action. I hope this makes you smile as much as they make us smile every day.

Material Girls and Boys in the Spiritual World

2008-05-10T19:01:00.004-05:00

Remember the Police? We Are Spirits in the Material World. They were too cool. Isabelle got me a DVD of all their videos the Christmas before last. Walking on the Moon, So Lonely, etc. They perk me right up.

But how about it? How often does anyone really recognize either of these paradoxes (Being Spirits in the Material World or being Materials in the Spiritual World)? It's so easy just going along being material in the material world.

Last night we went to Target, and I browsed the Blu-Ray selection, which I last visited before Christmas so we would have a few good flicks for our new Blu-Ray player that we got for Christmas to go along with our new HD TV. Most movies were 24.99, 29.99 or 34.99, which was OK for Christmas, but more than I wanted to pay. Then, there it was: T2, $14.99. That's Arnold. Schwarzenegger. In his prime. #73 on imdb.com's top 250. I already have The Terminator, on DVD (#188). A no-brainer, right? Less than the price of 2 tickets to the actual movies for a high-def version of one of my favorite movies of all time, which we can watch on a projector with surround sound.

$16 (with tax). So we can stay home and watch it for 2+ hours, every once in a while. Oh and so we can watch the first one for 2 hours also just prior, most likely, also.

Does anyone else have a budget? We do. That's our material contract with ourselves. But it's a bit preposterous, isn't it? How many people in the world never see $16 at one time? That just slid right into our disposable income. I don't want to think about it.

Oh, and that time we spend watching our movies, that comes from our calendar, which is another contract with ourselves. And (gulp!) it's more spiritual than material! I really don't want to think about this one.

It's so much easier being reactive than pro-active. What must we pay? Bills! What must we do? Change diapers! But wait--why am I watching TV?

Trained! (And A Travel Reprieve)

2008-05-03T07:39:00.002-05:00

Ah, training! Nothing scratches a technologist's itch quite like a week of on-site, pertinent, challenging, and thorough training. Our Database Administrators at my workplace (Bank Of America) were thoughtful enough to include us developers in a course called "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SSIS for Administrators." For those who are technology or acronym challenged or both, SQL stands for Structured Query Language (a standard across all databases) and SSIS stands for SQL Server Integration Services.

Another interesting connection here is that a friend of mine since I first arrived in St. Louis, Gerald Hinson, was on the SQL Server 2005 team at Microsoft, and here I was learning all about it. Pretty cool. Gerald can be found among my friends in Facebook. Gerald has since moved on to the Microsoft Zune team.

And, great news about our upcoming trip back to Mauritius. We had been told by Air Mauritius that they had closed their US office. Instead they upgraded, moving from New Jersey to New York. And when we checked, their prices for tickets from St. Louis to Mauritius via London were the same as the last time we went. Whew! No Euros or Pounds required, apparently. Who's coming?

The Trip!

2008-04-22T18:02:00.004-05:00

Well, whatever could be next but some details around our upcoming trip back to Mauritius. We're looking at leaving at the end of October, and I'll return in mid-November, probably visiting our missionaries in Marseille, France on the way back. Isabelle, Julia and Chloe will be staying in Mauritius without me until they return in January.

Ticket prices have gotten really expensive, but we discovered some tricks that are easing the pain. Frequent flyer tickets have become more valuable than ever. We have found that it works out to be better to buy miles for a frequent flyer account even if you have no miles, in order to redeem for a ticket, than to try to buy tickets directly. But you do have to get them early.

So, who's with us? Springtime in Mauritius! And a visit in the south of France!

Foreign Mission Sunday

2008-04-08T17:42:00.004-05:00

This Sunday, April 13, we are having Foreign Mission Sunday at our church, Mid-County Church of Christ in St. Louis. Materials here will supplement and in some cases duplicate the live presentation.

It is a world tour. We start in Richmond Heights, Missouri, at our Sunday morning meeting place, and then we fly off across the Atlantic Ocean to...

Marseille, France

Newsletter about their recent trip to Italy

And then, across mainland Africa to its furthest corner...

Mauritius

Slideshow of the Leuteritz family's adventures in Mauritius

Now we're heading across the Indian Ocean to...

Laos and Cambodia

Our friendly American visitor in Laos

Dale Lundy's Cambodia newsletter

We're off again across the vast Pacific Ocean to...

Lima, Peru

One of our favorite daughters, Stephanie (Grigg) Fletcher and her husband Lee's slide show

Lee and Stephanie's Proposal for Partnership for their mission to Lima, Peru

Leon, our favorite South American's Peru slide show

Finally, we make our way back to St. Louis, overwhelmed by the enormity of the Great Commission, but encouraged by those who are a part of it.

Sunday's materials:

Mauritius Slides

Mauritius Script

Slide of Dale Lundy in Cambodia

Julia 2007

2008-03-18T19:58:00.001-05:00

Here is our latest minimally edited home video highlight reel.

3 Months And 31 Years

2008-03-16T17:06:00.004-05:00

We have arrived on the 16th of March, 2008, and we're all enjoying life. Friday marked three months to the day, and thanks to Leap Year, thirteen weeks to the day as well for our little girl Chloe. She is downright marvelous. She is as healthy as a horse, and although not as big as a horse, she is big. She was born slightly smaller than Julia but for her first two check-ups she eked out higher numbers than her big sister at the same point in her life in height, weight and head-size. We were told at each appointment that each girl was at the 100th percentile in all three categories. I know that's impossible from my math background but what are you gonna do? They're doctors.

Today, we marked 31 years for Isabelle, the one my heart desires as much as ever. She is doing a wonderful job with our girls, and I think she is doing a wonderful job with me as well. I have been an easy one to distract since she has known me, and now I am becoming ever more moody as time goes by. I need her by my side to keep me focused, and to keep the facades of this world from detracting from spiritual reality.

Isabelle remarked that turning 31 years old didn't seem like much compared to turning 30 years old. I just turned 40 years old in October, but as I recall, 30, 40, 50, etc. are not the only hard ones. I submit that those ending in 0, 4, and 7 are all equally hard. So starting even with 24, then 27, 30, 34, 37, 40, etc. there's a subtle transition that weighs heavy on a human. I see it as mid-twenties, late twenties, early thirties, mid-thirties, late thirties, etc. This is impacted heavily by those worldly facades I mentioned earlier, but without much wisdom at those young ages they can still hit pretty hard! Comments, anyone?

I'm uploading a Julia 2007 highlight video to Google video as I blog which I hope to post here soon. Hurry back!

Socially Networked (Possibly Awkwardly)

2008-03-08T08:53:00.002-06:00

I hereby announce that I am in Facebook. Click above and you'll find me. 'Nuf said.

We're doing well here. Daylight savings time will knock us out this weekend but Spring will bring us back to life. A 31 years and 3 months post is due around the middle of March as well.

Also, my sister Courtney has a new blog. This dressage business is quite fascinating. The link is on the left.

Girls And More Girls

2008-02-25T17:33:00.002-06:00

You may have seen one of my earliest posts about how everyone we know is having girls right now. It almost turned out to be all girls again this round, with our friend Patty giving birth to their second girl, Junia, a couple of weeks ago. But, Bret came through for the guys and little David arrived back before Chloe. With his two big sisters and all these girls surrounding him, he'll need an extra dose of Dad's roughing and tumbling to stand up to it all. Praise God for these little miracles, who somehow make all our pain and struggles disappear.

Today, Grandma B. arrived from Nebraska, and this evening, my old roommate Tom and his parents will join us for dinner. Tom is a good friend, and if you're interested, you may hear him on the radio every Sunday afternoon from 2:30 to 3:00 on 770 AM in St. Louis. I listened long enough last week to hear his co-DJ make an appeal to find Tom a date for some upcoming event, and I let Tom know that we were listening. So this week, Tom dropped our names on the air by way of sending us a greeting! Very amusing and rather exciting.

5 years, 2 years, and 2 months

2008-02-18T15:54:00.009-06:00

Hi all. We are past due for an update here. I think the best way to get caught up is to load up on some pix. We can make up for failing to meet our word quota by taking advantage of the 1000 to 1 advantage pictures deliver as compared to words.

We have recently celebrated Isabelle's and my fifth anniversary, Julia's turning two years old, and Chloe turning two months old. We also completed a major road trip that took us all the way to South Padre Island, Texas, with Isabelle's sister Medge and her husband Jacques. Given that information, some sense should be able to be made from the following images...

M. Night ________________

2008-01-23T23:40:00.000-06:00

I was at a guys weekend, and as we were surfing around on DirecTV, we happened on the movie Signs, starring Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix. I remarked how much I disliked it, and my old college roommate Scott concurred. Scott and I, being computer programmers, represent the evil, rich element of society in our guys weekends. Mike and Lance, on the other hand, represent the salt of the earth. But I digress. Anyway, when the movie got to the scene in which the director appears as an actor, I mumbled, "There's M. Night, himself" and Scott confirmed it. Somebody asked, "Who?" And Scott answered, "You know, M. Night Shyamalama-ding-dong." My sentiments, exactly.

Quality Uncontrolled

2008-01-04T15:41:00.000-06:00

Well, now that the holidays have passed and our girls are settling into their new roles with some slightest bit of predictability, I've been left to gather my thoughts into some consistent themes. First, and foremost, we strive to live out our faith. But an ever increasing secondary theme is that technology is swirling up around us everywhere, while the quality of technology products continually spirals downward and out the drain.

I already wrote about the cantankerous nature of our Roomba robot vacuum, which has been on a roll now for two weeks, and today cleaned up our dining and living room. Other recent products that have demonstrated fleeting quality standards have been ATI's HDTV-Wonder recording software, Panasonic's TC-32LX700 HD television, and Magnavox's MWD7006 DVD player.

The faulty ATI product is effectively nothing more than VCR software. Any standard old-school VCR is capable of being programmed to record a channel at a given time for a given duration on a repeating schedule. Through trial and error, I discovered that the ATI software could not launch in order to record; the software had to already be running in order to record. Beyond that, I discovered that it could only record the requested channel if it was not already tuned to the requested channel. And after the recording, it remained on the channel it had just recorded but indicated that it was tuned to the channel it had come from before the recording. So, after one successful recording, another successful recording could only be made if the channel was changed (and not to the channel to be recorded) or if the software was restarted.

We discovered this while trying to record Teletubbies for Julia for our trip back when she was around fifteen months old. In two weeks of trying to record Teletubbies, I finally did not successfully record a single one. I did get a Caillou and a Curious George, which she watched over and over. Part of the problem in this case was that Channel 9 didn't have the right line-up on their online TV schedule (yet another technology quality issue).

The Panasonic and Magnavox products, both brand new, were both defective. One is a high-end cutting edge product, and the other is a low-end, waning technology product. The TV worked at first, and let me edit channels but within 48 hours it was locking up and then returning with a message stating "An error has occurred and recovered." Finally, it just conked out completely. Panasonic first tried to get me to go through a service center for repairs, but ultimately I was able to get it lined up to be returned and replaced. I had ordered it direct from Panasonic.

The Magnavox DVD player refuses to open its tray. We can manually open it, but when we put a DVD in it and close it, nothing happens. It's hard to imagine how something like this could be a problem at this stage. We will take it back to Wal-mart and exchange it when we get a chance.

As a software developer, I have a pretty good idea what it takes to ensure that a product is of the highest quality. Maybe this sums it up best:

Fast
Good
Cheap

(Pick any two)

Actually, I think we may be only able to pick one these days...

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-20T22:39:00.000-06:00

Our wish to all our friends and family is for you to have a blessed celebration of our Savior's birth, and high hopes for a happy new year.

Blessed

2007-12-20T00:49:00.000-06:00

Here is a photo of the girls with Lisa (Jackson) Randolph, my dear sister in Christ who came by for a visit in the hospital. Those of you who go back as far as my Kirksville days will no doubt remember her. (She attended Mid-County briefly as well.) We left a day earlier from the hospital than had been reported, so we hope nobody came up empty looking for us.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and replies to my e-mail inviting you to see this blog. We're doing quite well under the circumstances, although Isabelle is having to overcome quite a bit. Healing from abdominal surgery is no picnic, nor is breaking in a ravenous newborn in terms of nursing.

Today, I managed to get around to some Christmas shopping. We thought we'd have plenty of time after Chloe came sometime around December 3. So we lost about two weeks there. Before any one spends any money on any newborn or infant toys or other paraphernalia, I recommend Once Upon A Child across from Walmart and Target in Kirkwood. I got all kinds of toys and books for less than the price of one item that was tempting me at Target.

Another bit of news I have is that Isabelle's sister Medge's husband was able to get a visa to visit the US, and he is due to arrive on Friday. Thank you all for your prayers for him. Something else also, in terms of prayers for me, is that it turned out that my hip condition was some kind of muscular-skeletal tweak that just needs some recovery time. We're mighty glad I'm not headed for hernia surgery as we had been told, here in the early days with Chloe and during Isabelle's recovery from surgery.

I feel a rant coming on, so stay tuned...

Chloe Pix

2007-12-17T00:31:00.000-06:00

When Julia arrived, we had signed up for Yahoo! photos just prior, and so we could upload and make public every last photo that we took. We took so many and so many similar that people wondered if something was wrong with Yahoo! photos because it appeared to be showing duplicate photos. It was faster and easier to upload everything than to wade through it all. Since Yahoo! photos has closed up shop, we now have to pick and choose what we want to show. We'll do our best to pick some good ones so far. We have something on the order of one-third as many photos with Chloe as with Julia.

Speaking of Julia, here is a photo of the sisters. Julia has been working hard on all the concepts and vocabulary that come with her latest new role in life. She figured out somewhere along the way that Chloe was only in Mommy's tummy and not also in her own tummy. And she was saying "sister" with great sincerity, but little indication if she knew what it meant exactly. On the other hand, Julia has taken to saying, "Rosie, too!" which is a common quote from the television show "Caillou" that we let her watch almost daily. Caillou is a four year old boy and Rosie is his two-year old sister. So we think this is a good sign that she's getting some idea of what's happening.

Meet Chloe!

2007-12-17T00:17:00.000-06:00

Here is Chloe in one of the happier minutes of her first hour or so. She came out ready for action, crying, flailing about, and pooping. She measured 21" and weight 7 lb, 14 oz, but we figure she could easily have lost the 4 oz. she needed to match Julia by failing to wait until after the official weigh-in to poop.

Dad appreciates the numerical convenience of having a daughter born on 12-14-07 who weighs 7 pounds and 14 ounces and is 21 inches long. Having multiples of seven only in the stats was plenty, Dad being a football fan as well, but then matching those up to the date with only the transposition of the month and the length was cool.

Here She Is!

2007-12-14T08:46:00.000-06:00

Chloe Michelle Burkholder is here! She came via C-section at 6:30 pm and was 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 inches long.

We are in room 2119 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Kirkwood. Chloe is nursing like a champ already and favors Julia quite a bit. Check with us Saturday before visiting. We'll probably be here until Tuesday they tell us.

Thank you for all your prayers! Please continue to pray for Isabelle's recovery. Our girls just haven't wanted to keep their heads down.

Holding Our Horses

2007-12-06T06:41:00.000-06:00

Yes, it's Thursday. But it's not necessarily big, we decided. Julia came on her own five days after the estimated due date. Isabelle is feeling good, and so, three days after Chloe's estimated due date, we agreed that we could wait some more.

Stay tuned!

Big Thursday

2007-12-01T16:35:00.000-06:00

December 6 looms large. We had an appointment with Isabelle's doctor today, and decided to schedule Isabelle to be induced early Thursday morning. Of course another possibility is that baby Chloe may arrive before then (her due date is Monday). And today we were disappointed to learn that she seems to have turned since last week and is now breach. So we may be heading for a C-section again. Please pray for us.

Thankfulness

2007-11-21T17:10:00.000-06:00

How can we learn to really appreciate what we have? How easy it is to fall into the trap that the Pharisee did in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Isabelle's and Medge's brothers and Medge's husband now find themselves unemployed indefinitely from their profession as pig farmers due to the arrival in Mauritius of African Swine Fever. I still have my job.

Some friends of ours who used to go to church with us have a precious son who suffers from a multitude of food allergies which prevent even the occasional experience of normalcy that most of us enjoy. Julia caught a bug and threw up before bedtime Monday night, and although Isabelle had to get up with her once an hour that night, by the time I got back home Tuesday she was her adorable old self.

My cousins' cousins, two out of the three boys in their family, find themselves forever changed due to a car accident that left the younger one paralyzed from the waist down, and the middle one learning to swallow, talk and eat again after having brain surgery to remove a tumor. Their ages added together amount to my age, and I can't even imagine their plight.

A long-time friend of mine, at this time last year, suffered a miscarriage in the ninth month of her pregnancy. We await Chloe, with great anticipation, having been told by our doctor that Isabelle's pregnancy so far, is "perfect."

Another long-time friend of mine nearly died due to a heart defect combined with a virus that attacked his heart. I remain in sloppy shape, relying on walking to the bus and back after ten years of relying mainly on walking my dog a mile each night before bedtime.

Earlier this year, we bid a final farewell to a husband and father in our congregation who succumbed to colon cancer, after two years of fighting and living like he was dying. His wife and four children somehow continue to endure. Her neighbor and sister in Christ and three young children lost their husband and father to a psychotic meltdown almost five years ago. She ministers to the new widow and her new husband ministers to those who are addicted to anything or anyone besides Jesus.

Oh yeah. I almost forgot. I am thanking when I should be confessing. Please forgive me.

Weekend to Remember

2007-11-05T17:33:00.000-06:00

Hi from our fifth year of a wonderful marriage, the ninth month of an arduous but exemplary pregnancy, and the last day of our daughter Julia's 7th quarter of life. Yes, I was a math major, and my father was an English professor.

Isabelle and I just spent a great weekend at a Weekend to Remember conference held at the Frontenac Hilton just a little ways from our house. It took me a little time to wind down from a hectic week of work, but gladly we had Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon, and Sunday morning and afternoon to hear some excellent speakers providing good guidance for our most important relationship here on Earth. Thanks to my dear wife Isabelle for talking me into it, and for our friends Jim and Freddie G who recommended it to us.

Also, we must pay homage to Isabelle's sister Medge, who did us a huge favor by taking good care of Julia for our weekend. Not only does she help raise our child, but she also rakes leaves and clears brush! And she has been staining our rather lengthy, shadow-box style wood fence out back in her spare time.

This trip has been a roller coaster for Medge, having learned not long after she arrived that Mauritius had been visited by African Swine Fever, and all pork processing had to be stopped. This is the livelihood of Medge's husband Jacques, and her and Isabelle's brothers Jean-Marc and Denis, and their mother, Marie-Josée. And then, with all that going on, we just found out that Medge's tourist visa for Canada was denied. We had made plans for her to visit her aunt Monique in Quebec City.

We're thankful that she is with us. We'll try to find a way to show her some sites in the southern US before she has to leave us.

Fargo

2007-10-20T21:53:00.000-05:00

It was a big day in Fargo, with the hometown Bison trampling the Big 10 (11)'s Golden Gophers of Minnesota. I'd rather think about this game than my team's game today, another in a string of humiliating and arguably emasculating losses by the Nebraska Cornhuskers, to the likes of Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M. If it were Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado, that's one thing, but these guys? Nebraska can only take pride in still being in today's game at halftime, being down by a score of 16-14. Then the second half played out like their prior two entire games, as they ultimately lost 36-14. Against Oklahoma State, with venerable three-time national championship coach Tom Osborne and his 1997 champs looking on for homecoming, the Cornhuskers returned to their status as Bug-Eaters (their original designation) as Oklahoma State utterly skunked them and led at halftime, 38-0. For forty years (longer than I can remember), something like this was unthinkable. I read in the ESPN article about North Dakota State's victory today that Craig Bohl is their head coach. He is mentioned as a candidate for Nebraska's opening as Bill Callahan's seat is on fire it's so hot. However, if memory servers, Coach Bohl was on hand as defensive coordinator for an infamous 62-36 loss at Colorado in which not even Eric Crouch in his Heisman prime could save us from a complete defensive collapse. That year they still somehow backed into the BCS National Title Game but that 37-14 defeat by Miami was the beginning of the end. I was thinking Coach Callahan had reversed Nebraska's obvious inability to recruit that first surfaced under Coach Frank Solich, post-Tom Osborne, but now it looks like we are stuck in a combined recruiting and coaching vacuum.

So, why am I paying attention to college football in Fargo, anyway? Well, utlimately it's because I owe a promised post to my dear aunt, uncle and cousin who call Fargo home. We got to spend a lovely weekend with them during our trip this past summer, just at the beginning of July, which is the time to visit. Fargo has been known to dip into the 30s in the winter. The MINUS 30s, that is.

Here is a picture of me with Julia and my cousin Matthew, aunt Vel Rae, and uncle Keith. Currently, Vel Rae is recuperating from bypass surgery, and Keith from cataract surgery, while Matthew is a recent cancer survivor. Matthew is an active and excellent actor and director in community theater, while Vel Rae is a retired Food and Nutritions professor. and Keith is the retired City Planner for the city of Fargo. He was on TV plenty back during the Red River flood of 1997.

GA Alumni

2007-10-12T07:23:00.000-05:00

GAAlumni is short for General American alumni, which is a site for us refugees from there to keep up with each other. I worked at General American from 1989-2003, which is when MetLife, after acquiring GA in 2000, decided to close down our operation in St. Louis.

Yesterday I had lunch with a couple of other refugees, Steve D and Susan K. Steve has been working at AT&T for several years now, and Susan is contracting in our group at Bank Of America. She was just let go from MetLife early this year.

The old General American NHQ (National Headquarters) is right across the street from where Susan and I work. That's where I started in 1989. And, there's a photograph on the wall in my department of part of this unusual building. For me this is very weird. The NHQ is vacant with for sale signs up, and Steve said he heard it was cheap.

On The Bus

2007-10-09T16:04:00.001-05:00

I'm on the bus, on the way home, here on what may turn out to be the last day of Indian summer in St. Louis, 2007. Over the weekend, they removed the Jefferson Avenue bridge over Highway 64/40. The mornings are already getting a bit more congested, but this afternoon we made it out fine. In January, the powers that be are going to close Highway 64/40 from Ballas, near 270, to 170. I don't think any of us can quite imagine it.

Metro St. Louis has responded with increases in numbers and frequency of the express bus I take to and from work downtown at 8th and Market. At the end of November, we will go from buses for two hours every half hour in the morning and evening, to buses for three hours every twenty minutes. I may be out for paternity leave once that kicks in, but it will be nice to know it's there when I get back. To those of you who know St. Louis, this bus will start and end at Clarkson and Chesterfield Parkway, finding its way along New Ballwin, and then along Big Bend all the way between its western endpoint and Elm. I get it in Crestwood, which usually works out to a ride between 25 and 40 minutes in length. I can barely park and walk in that amount of time when I drive my car down.

Additional news for us right now is that ma belle-soeur (sister-in-law, techincally, or beautiful sister, literally) will be arriving to spend several months with us on next Monday, October 15. We are very excited for her to be able to come and spend this special season with us.

October 17: FORTY!

2007-10-07T16:27:00.000-05:00

My dear wife created this startling image and message which shows how much a person can change in 35 years. Most of it actually occurred between age 10 and age 14. At 10, blond, just over 5 feet tall, and often mistaken for a girl (with a name like Chris) if my hair was too long. At 14, 6' 3", dark, wavy hair, and never considered the slightest bit feminine or even a minor again. But somehow, while I was creeping into my 30s, at least the Mauritians all thought I was 28.

Anyone care to guess what the most famous event to take place on my birthday was? Check out wikipedia...it involved baseball...

Time, Gadgets

2007-10-02T07:16:00.000-05:00

Finally finding time to post here...speaking of which...

Time is beginning to fly by for us. In two weeks, Isabelle's sister Medgeé will arrive to be with us until February. Two weeks after she arrives, she'll visit Aunt Monique and her clan in Quebec for about two weeks. Then, after she's back with us for about two weeks, we are expecting Chloe to arrive. My dad will join us for Thanksgiving, and my mom, who will be newly retired as of November 1, will join us for Christmas and probably more than that.

And now for some truth about a time saver that also has wasted plenty of time along the way...

Last night, one of our most interesting gadgets, our robot vacuum, cleaned our living and dining room floors. When I first got this guy, a Roomba made by iRobot, I expected them to take over the world. But by now I have learned why they haven't. What's the opposite of a perfect storm? Conditions have to be just right for our Roomba to succeed. Maybe it's a little like flying a blimp. Isabelle can't understand how I can have enough patience to put up with all the little gotchas we've discovered. In order to have a successful vacuuming, we must have charged the Roomba no less than about 36 hours, and no more than about 72 hours. If we're outside this window, then, irrespective of the green light battery indicator, we will find that the battery becomes suddenly depleted. Also, we have to clean the long hairs and debris out of the brushes. Battery operation requires that brushing rather than suction be the primary source of collecting dust and debris. The latest discovery we made was that sometimes the Roomba would suddenly act like the battery wasn't there even when it was. So our final requirement is that we have to remove the battery, hold the power button for 20 seconds to recycle the battery charging mechanism, and place the Roomba upside down and on an incline to insure that the battery gets charged fully.

There are also periodic mechanical cleanings that have been necessary. I found out from iRobot that now that I'm outside the warranty, about all they offer is a discount on my next Roomba. I have had to blow forced air so the cliff sensors don't constantly go off and cause the Roomba to start, jerk backward, stop, start, jerk backward, stop, start, etc. I also had to open up the whole case and clean the leftover beagle hair out of everywhere. The dimensions of the filter and collection compartment seem to have been designed without pet hair on the radar.

However, there is nothing quite like having a robot do our chores for us. We set it to work in a room every couple of days, and it cleans every inch, including under the bed and certain other low riding furniture.

Home For The Duration

2007-09-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

Life remains rather uneventful here in St. Louis. Isabelle continues to do well in her pregnancy, now fully into the third tri-mester. She amazed me on Monday by somehow putting three coats on the walls in the living room that we decided should be orange, with no help from anyone, and with Julia running around. We had just gotten the paint on Sunday, and I figured we'd get to it whenever I could keep Julia occupied while Isabelle painted. Painting is her talent, not mine, by the way. It has been pointed out that this is probably Isabelle's nesting instinct kicking in.

Today we stopped by a semi-annual sale at our district's high school, Lindbergh (Go Flyers!), of second hand baby stuff with twins as the theme. Isabelle picked up a whole pile of clothes for our new, bigger Julia for the winter, but we didn't find the ideal travel stroller for two for sale, although we saw one in the parking lot. Second hand sales are not part of the culture in Mauritius. Does anyone know if they are strictly American, or do they occur in Europe, or Asia, or anywhere else? Alisa, are you reading? Florine? How about Australia? We like them.

Here is a photo from our recent visit to Nebraska. This was the first time that Isabelle, Julia and I have been with my mom, dad and sister at once.

Happy Daddy

2007-09-11T17:13:00.001-05:00

Happy Father's Day came and went but I am one of the happiest fathers around with my wonderful wife Isabelle, our wonderful daughter Julia, and another on the way in Chloe.

This is a photo of us while we were with Courtney on the Oregon coast, near Haceta Head lighthouse.

Vacationing Again

2007-09-01T13:42:00.000-05:00

So here we are again on vacation with my sister. Here is a photo from our visit back in June at her house in Cottage Grove, Oregon.

This time, she decided and then we decided to visit our parents in Lincoln, Nebraska. We are having great weather--just a bit cooler than St. Louis, I understand.

Today, we went to the Lincoln Children's Zoo, and later my dad and I will go watch Nebraska open their college football season against Nevada.

I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan, and a St. Louis Rams fan, and a St. Louis Blues fan, but I'm a Nebraska Cornhuskers fanatic. For five years, back in the 90s, Nebraska won three national championships, and lost only three times. I was at two of those three losses: to Florida State, in the Orange Bowl, and to Texas, in the Big 12 championship game, in St. Louis. I missed the one at Arizona State. And I also saw plenty of victories in Lincoln, and one famous one at Missouri in double overtime.

Go Big Red!

Yard Work

2007-08-25T17:37:00.000-05:00

First, how do you like the flags? They're a bit too in-your-face, I know, but I wanted to get to this post so that's how they'll be for now.

We had a St. Louis summer wind storm again yesterday. It seems like we're having a lot more of these recently. One knocked out our power a week ago Monday as well. And last year you probably heard that over half a million residences had their power knocked out just as we entered a heat wave with temperatures at 100.

This year, we've been having temperatures from 95-105 for the past two or three weeks. So yesterday, while I was at work, Isabelle called and said that a tree had come down on our fence. We watched outside as the sky got black, and the centerfield giant video screen at Busch Stadium lost its feed and provided a bizarre green source of light in the dark skies.

This provided the impetus we needed to buy a chain saw last night at our neighborhood Sears. So this morning I spent three or so hours clearing the mess. And I didn't injure myself. I sure could have, but I guess my combination of standing in the V of the tree ready to lean back, and poking my head, shoulders, and arms through the hole in the fence were a good enough strategy.

The Minnesota Giants

2007-08-22T22:57:00.000-05:00

Actually, from our perspective, these are the Minnesota Second Cousins (of Julia). And they are brothers but not twins. They are the sons of my first cousin Anne Byrne, who lives in the Minneapolis suburbs. We were able to visit them during our recent trip.

Michael, on the right, is 6'10" and studying engineering (we forget what kind) at the University of Michigan. Matthew is 6'6" and stockier that Michael, and he has just entered Duke University as a freshman.

Their dad Pat has decorated their rec room half in Michigan's colors and paraphernalia, and the other half in Duke. Home Depot carries school colors, in case you were wondering.

So, let me fill in some details on our recent trip so it starts to make some sense. We had three weeks, so we decided to take a train across the northern US, since many from my family live on the route of the Empire Builder. We flew to Portland, Oregon, and visited my sister who lives in Cottage Grove. Then we took the train to Williston, North Dakota, to visit my grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousin. Then we continued and visited my aunt and uncle in Fargo, ND, and cousin Anne in MSP, and then finally we visited friends in Detroit, before flying home from there.

Anne knew how to play a lively pattycake which kept Julia enthralled.

Posting: How Often and How Much

2007-08-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

OK, so here I go for another posting. I am sure that one per day will not be our long term pace. As I watch my friends' blogs, I know the usual pace is about 1-5 per week. Here are some friends' blogs:

These are also at the bottom of our church web site, which will soon be going through a renaissance as our current provider is closing up shop.

We also have some photos out on flickr but I haven't figured out how to manage all of those yet. To those of you who saw our photos when they were on Yahoo, sorry! Flickr doesn't just let you make all your photos public.

We welcome your musings! Please feel free to post a reply.

Tea Time

2007-08-19T15:43:00.000-05:00

It's another Sunday afternoon, and I don't have praise team practice today at 4 like I usually do. So we're getting ready for tea and biscuits, or rather tea/iced tea/milk and biscuits/bagels/Oreos. Mauritians don't have any trouble convincing us Americans whether to have a snack at 5 pm or so, but what to snack on is a different story. Even in their African summer, sans air conditioning, hot tea with milk and sugar comes around every morning and afternoon like clockwork. With the tea, you'll have bread in the morning, and crisp, barely sweet crackers in the afternoon. Or crepes if you're lucky. :-)

On another topic, here are some scanned images of some professionally produced photographs taken and edited by my uncle Glenn. We visited them during our recent trek across the northern US.

Chloe Michelle's Profile

2007-08-18T07:42:00.000-05:00

Welcome! It's a girl!

Yeah, we know we should have been blogging before now. Now let's see if we can set a reasonable pace...

Last Tuesday, our delivery doctor gave us another in a series of good reports on Isabelle's pregnancy. The new due date is December 3, based on the ultrasound we got the Wednesday before that.

At our church, Mid-County Church in St. Louis, baby girls are everywhere. One couple, after adopting a girl and a boy, just had a boy. But aside from him, the last six or eight arrivals have been girls. Good friends of ours with two girls are due a few weeks before us, and they refuse to try to find out ahead of time. Other good friends with one girl are due a few weeks after us.

Having majored in statistics, and having observed that half the world is girls, I know that the odds against all three of us having girls were 8 to 1. Now that we know we will, the odds against the other two having girls are 4 to 1. In other words, it's still unlikely. Try telling that to all the other families that have two or three kids of the same gender.

God must be smiling on us, protecting our sanity. Sure we want a boy, but we certainly feel blessed that Joey-Chloe turned out to be a girl. Julia needs a sister. She will be Chloe Michelle, Lord willing.

Later!
-Chris