I am back in the hometown after a brief visit to see how the 'other' half lives. The 'other' half being the married-with-children-with-varied-schedules people. This married with children folks that I had the privilege to live with is my sister's family. She has two kids; one 7.5 year old that goes to second grade school and one 3.5 year old that goes to daycare. She goes to yet another school to teach a bunch of high-schoolers. After a week, I must say, Wow! Yep! a simple Wow!

All together, there appeared to be bursts of activity during the morning and evening hours with a peaceful dead-zone (for me, not for my sister) in between. It is a peaceful 5 AM to wake up to, no kitties jumping over me (hmm, I kind of missed that) to wake me up. Just past six am, my sister is up and about, shortly there after the kids are woken up. I have observed that all little ones crave mummy-time in the morning. Mummy-time is something similar to kitty-time. My kitties, simply jump on the bed (if they haven't been hanging out there already) squat on me or near my head, purring their head off. The next 15-20 minutes are completely dedicated to them, to tickle their bellies, scratch their heads, hold them and hug them. My two nephews needed exactly that.. mummy-time. By and by, breakfast, milk, coffee got made, breakfast got eaten, morning ablutions wrapped, kids got yelled, kids crying wrapped, kids got their crankiness out, kids dressed, everyone else dressed, everyone tumbled out to do drop offs.

I dropped the older one to school and my sister dropped off the little one and we switched the pickups. The school doors open at 8:25 AM. A late pass needs to be issued if the child is not inside the school doors by 8:45 AM. It is 20 mins of complete chaos in front of a school. The school buses unloading their cargos and going off to gather another cartload of kids. Parents, guardians and people like me, dropping off kids. Of course, all drivers want to park right in front of school, right at the door, probably at the classroom door! duh! What is the harm in parking a block away, getting out, walking ten (or more) steps to get to the school door. Perhaps I am beating up the droppers a bit too much. After I dropped off, I was heading home, while most people there were heading to work, trying to get there by 9:00 AM. I should really cut them some slack; after all, they were the ones that were on a more stringent timeline.

I spent most of the morning, lunch time and afternoon blissfully clickity-clicking on my computer getting work done, receiving emails, responding to emails, writing up instructions, doing demos, talking on phone and communicating on instant messenger. While I was happily typing on my computer, my sister is at her school handling lessons, reviews, talkative kids, grades, homework, teaching, doing demos and running around. Somewhere in all that she has her packed lunch and I have my bowl(s) of cereal, chips and soup.

... all was back to normal working day until 3:20 PM.

Around 3:15 PM outlook reminded me to pick the little one from daycare. Work went on hold for the next hour, whilst, I drove off to pick the little one. Picking a kid from day care was (is) not a matter of getting to the daycare, bundling the little one and driving back. 'It' is not a bag of potatoes or carton of milk that one drives to the store, purchases and drives back. It entails, spending 10-15 mins with the little one at the daycare, before the little one is prepared to head out. No sense in forcing a kid to drop their current train of thought, current book, current chat with friends, current fight, current crying or anything for that matter. I found myself enjoying my 15 minutes of hanging out with 'my' (my is in single quotes, because it my sisters little one, so indirectly mine) little one at the day care. Interestingly, if you hang around chitter-chattering with 'your' kid, random other kids gravitate towards you. One kid wanted something from other kid, and was not getting it, so was crying his head off. I happened to be around, and patted him saying: "There, there, play with something else". The next moment (to my utter astonishment), this bawling kid clung to me and cried even more. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the teacher(s) laughing heartily. All I could do was hug the crying one, which led to others coming over. Hug-Magnets, I say. By and by, everyone was sorted and I and 'my' little one were on our way home.

Back home, the little one was happy to be playing around until mummy brought the other one, and then everyone was home, exchanging news of the day. Over coffee, milk, snacks, and homework for kids, I was happily reunited with my computer to continue clicking meaningful sequences of alphabets and numbers and some odd special characters.

Almost 12 hours since we have been up, the family sits down for dinner with work for the day wrapped up, homework done, and computer shut down. In the next couple of hours, the kids have play time, reading time, fighting time, crying time, bath time, and bed time. The bed-time always came last, but all the other 'times' were in random order and many times repeated over in the same evening.

Around 9:00 PM, peace reigns once more, whence my sister goes to pack lunches, clear dishes, complete her work for the next day. Who knows when she does sleep, I am already in dream world, when she finally gets to bed.

All in all, at the end of the week, my sentiments are exactly as they were when I started the drop off and pick up schedule. A simple, WOW!

After what was perhaps an exhausting weekend! I am finally ready for the week!

The plan was to drive down to NY on Sunday, but I was too blooming exhausted, too much going on and I had to clear my head and plate! I finally have it all done or I think I have it all finally done. It feels great, feels free and feels light again.

Tuesday morning, heading for the much needed break and away from this town for a few days!

Visiting my sister and her family in Yonkers, New York is always a treat. I get to eat the yummiest of the food, take long afternoon naps and enjoy a beautiful home and garden.

Thursday, I drove down to New York. Despite the high gas prices, it always seems to work out to take the car. I usually start off, thinking, I need one bag of clothes and that is it. Soon enough one bag has led to one box of wine and champagne, another box of pressure washer, my pillow, another bag of goodies for the kids and sister, and some more clothes, that I might just need, perhaps a cooler to put fish in (there is a great fresh fish store near my sisters place). By and by, there is no other option but to take the car. I really do like to drive and my car needs the workout. My car mechanic mentioned to me, that I should drive my car more often. My 9 year old car has less than 35000 miles on it. It is not my fault, really, every time I moved residences, the office moves within public transport distance, so there is no need to take the car, when I can be 'chauffeured' to work. Anyways, I digress (as usual), the short of the long, is that I drove down to my sisters place.
On the way, at Southbury, I stopped and shopped! I always do. I don't know what the attraction is, but I seem to always find something really cool and nice and on sale. This time was no exception; one of my favorite dresses (the one I have been keeping an eye out for!) was on sale! I snapped it up and I was on the road again happy as can be. The rest of the journey was uneventful. On and off, some rain clouds decided to pester with some drops, but nothing too major.

The next day was a hot, humid, and sunny day to be out and about town. But the whole family was out for my sister’s graduation ceremony from City College of New York. It was a great fanfare and could have been better, had it not been sweltering heat. Poor little kids (one 3 yrs and the other 7 yrs old), were hot and miserable. Thankfully the whole thing was not too long, but like all these things, there are loads of speeches. Somehow, Presidents and Valedictorians love to hear themselves speak. By and by they were done and we made a beeline to comfort of home.

This weekend was also, the 7 yr old’s birthday, well, he turned 7 years. So we had a bit of celebrations and some cake and Spanish Cava and more of ice-cream and I am 4 lbs heavier. Along with all the celebrations, we also got some yard work done. The pressure washer was put to good use to clean up the concrete patio, which went from dull gray to bright gray.

Whilst all this was going on in New York, back home, my landscaper finished the planting 101. Yeah! The yard looks lovely, with the few plants and cedar mulch. It looks so different from where we started. Pictures coming soon!

It was a great weekend with family and friends. I did miss a BBQ, which I would loved to attend, but cannot have everything.

Gosh! Professional movers are fast. Within 3-4 hours they had loaded the truck and after a short lunch break, they unloaded the truck at the new place. Boxes all over (again! just different location). I found myself in the morning, packing the last minute items from the kitchen, all marked as "open immediately, if you want to cook". And in the afternoon, I found myself, unpacking those boxes. It was just weird.

It is everything a colonial house could want and has. It has gorgeous entry way with fantastic flow of the house to the living room and dinning. My sister thinks the kitchen is outdated. I agree, but still love it. Kitchen is connected to a wonderful pantry that looks over the backyard.

In short it is lovely. I loved it, and for a short time was willing to trade mine for it. But a week later, I got home sick and wanted to get back to my own home. :)

The closing went smoothly, while I was packing more boxes. we move tomorrow.

Packing, packing and more packing. Also having fun playing with my two nephews (one 6-year old and the other 2-year). Boy! They have tones to say and tell me.

More packing! Boxes and packing materials everywhere.

I am in New York helping my sister and family to pack and move to their new home.

A true vacation, finally. I am headed tomorrow to New York to spend some time with my sister. The start of the vacation was rather great, with the company summer picnic on private lakeside up north near Canobie lake. For the first time I rode the water jet ski, after being pursuaded by my boss. It was thrilling, exciting and a tad frightening going that speed over the lake. Over thunder squalls, cold beer and hot burgers, it was a great way to spend the afternoon.