The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
I need to replace my current glasses because the lens coatings are coming off and they look permanently dirty and cloudy. These will be my new ones that I’m hoping to receive this week.
I was debating between a few models, so I sent the pictures to Katy to get final approval. Turns out she chose the ones I was leaning towards as well.
So I went to dump our recycling. I do it periodically. I *think* the last time I did it was about a month ago, probably before all the covid-19 goodness.
Since then, my recycling bin has consumed 16 bottles of wine, a bottle of gin, a bottle of vodka and a giant tub of instant coffee.
Should I call someone for it?
Yesterday was the 11th year we haven’t killed the Bean yet, accidentally or otherwise. Bear in mind that Katy’s only been out of the hospital one week to the day, she’s done a superb, masterful, exceptional job of getting all the logistics organized. We invited a bunch of Ben’s friends to an indoor trampoline park where they could jump around for an hour, then have cake and drinks. It was like herding cats at times, but she got there in the end and every one seemed to have a good time.
The actual number of people that showed up was still unclear up to the last possible moment. We’d booked for 10 officially, but Ju,mppark said that it would be ok to get one or two more people in. Ben sent 12 invitations, but some people couldn’t because of prior commitments, so he sent out more invitations. We had 12 kids in total. Then two kids had gym/athletics accidents on the day before and the actual day of the party… so yeah, fun. We swapped cars with Roko to borrow his 7-seater (which was amusing because Katy’d never driven an automatic before) and we had two other moms helping out with the transportation. The cake got lots of praise, with several people asking where we’d bough it (nowhere, it’s homemade, bitches, booyah!).
We were completely frazzled when we got home after dropping off a couple of kids, but the child was happy and had had a good time, so I guess all the effort was worth it – even if he doesn’t realize just how much work was involved in all of it.
It involved way too much drama behind the scenes (that fscking Marshmellow mask!!!!) but the building’s annual Halloween party went off without a hitch, thanks to the combined efforts of Katy, Jen and MJ (and Ben will be very vocal in saying that he helped – even though his help was more autocratic micromanagement).
It was the biggest one yet, with a bunch of people coming from other buildings, friends of friends and random people I didn’t know. The kids seemed to get a good haul. The adults were congregating under the gazebo, happily socialising over a drink or keeping warm around the fire in the chimenea.
We ran out of mulled wine (but there were several bottles that were there to take up the slack). There was a ton of food – the guys at work tomorrow will be happy with the leftovers. After the fact, I’m happy we did it. People really seem to appreciate it. I just wish it didn’t involve as much drama as it seems to involve as part of the planning.
Ben and I took advantage of the yearly work outing to europapark. It was a long, but good, day. We had to be at the NRC car park for 6am,so that meant a 4:30 wake up call to pack snacks, passports and other essentials and head out. It was a 4h coach drive up there and a similar journey back.
Once we got there, it was pretty much just the 2 of us because we didn’t see any one from work for the whole time we were there.
I’d definitely go back. Compared to legoland, it’s bigger, generally cheaper once you’re in it (food prices were surprisingly reasonable) but it’s really not well signposted. There were several times where we just couldn’t find the rides we wanted to do. Waiting times were between 5 and 45 minutes, so that was fairly good. In the course of the day, we did:
Da Vinci flyer
Haunted house
Silverstone circuit
Swiss bobsled
Windjammer (3 times – Ben’s favourite ride)
Fjord rafting
Tyrolean log flume
Mountain train ride
Observation tower
Flying Dutchman (Ben only, twice)
As well as fighting off wasps while eating snack foods and Ben trying to win giant cuddly toys in rigged carny games.
Dear lawd, Bean is now a high school freshman. How the hell did that happen? First day of new school went well – even if it does start an hour sooner. Hopefully the trend will maintain itself over the year :)
A sausage roll and a shandy. Wonder from which side of the family he gets which bit.
The grown-ups can have some quality adult time.
Ben was at scout camp this weekend so – after shopping – we were able to go into Lausanne and have a (small) beer, share a basket of sliders and proper chips at a pub before going to see Captain Marvel.
Today, we went to Apero World and shared a G&T and a really big plate of antipasti.
It’s encouraging to know that even post-surgery, we can still enjoy foodie things like this.
We tried to feed Bean to several wild animals today but they already had their own provisions.
Katy, Ben and I went to the lakeside just before New Year’s to see if we could spot some of the fireworks from Lausanne or Vevey.
