Tuesday, January 17, 2012

variety: spice of life ?

  • Kerline and her baby girl got to go home after almost a week in the postpartum recovery room. 
  • Fifi had a quick easy DAYTIME birth. She has our undying gratitude for showing up ready to roll at 9am on a Monday and getting down to business. The quick births make you realize how much the long ones take out of you. They also make you want to jump up and down for joy.
  • Lourdes Milla decided not to return to the Harbor House after Christmas break. We're sad and happy. Sad to lose our comedian at the house, happy she feels good about moving away from Port au Prince and back with family she'd been separated from for a long time. 
  • Thank you Jeff Gacek for the special gift given to our kids! They are enjoying it every day. See photo evidence.


  • We have a guest with us all week. He arrived last Friday loaded down with many things, including but not limited to bacon and coffee.  Not just any bacon. Butcher shop bacon from California. He brought us the most advanced and superior coffee making tools of all time. Should we ever wish to go into business making coffee, we're fully armed and ready to do so. Grinding coffee to the exact coarseness desired is likely to become one of Troy's hobbies. When we were making plans for his visit we sent him an email explaining that we were looking forward to his visit. We shared that hosting him in our home was not stressful at all but having him see the inner workings of our dinner-routine would be an issue and would in fact create great stress. We asked how he would feel about eating at the guest house where they serve real meals geared for grown-ups. The singular human allowed to know what we eat for dinner and see exactly how pathetic and unvaried the rotation can be is Dr. Jen. She has lived with us long enough to stop judging. Rice with beans - bam - two course meal - rice 1 & beans 2 - full meal, no entree or additional side-dish needed.  Spaghetti with sauce - again - two courses.  Bread with Peanut Butter ...  You get the picture. Occasionally we pull out all the stops and host a party with real food, but our nightly dinner routine and menu isn't something we want a lot of people to be exposed to - especially not early in a relationship. If variety really is the spice of life, we're troubled.  We're certain there must be other less-well publicized spices of life. 

  • The list of "social media" sites that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security monitors was recently leaked. We were a nervous combination of perplexed, flattered, and concerned when we saw that pretty much every other site they monitor makes sense. CBS News, Jihad Watch, Drudge Report, Narcotrafico en Mexico, Huffington Post, and Livesay Haiti Weblog. We've determined that Noah is a threat to national security and an early detection system has identified him as such. It is either that, or they just really, really love pregnant ladies in Haiti.  All that to say,  HI (waving) HI HI monitor person at DHS. Nothin much in the way of threats to national security going on here but still - thanks for checkin in!
danger to society or starving child? you decide
  • We have another guest this coming Saturday night and then friends coming for a few days on Tuesday too.  We're still trying to figure out how to break it to them that they cannot stay during dinner time.