Well. it was fun while it lasted....

Jean and Tom finally got to take a trip to Europe, thanks to Jean's role as a Local Coordinator with CIEE, the exchange student program.  Jean spent a weekend at their conference in Munich, while Tom went to Kitzbuhel, Austria for some well deserved skiing.  We then headed off to Vienna, Olomouc CZ, Prague, and Berlin.  Highlights included:

• Meeting up with Paul and his business partners who are trying to get the solar technology funded and started in Munich and/or Dresden
• Skiing - in the Alps!
• Many old churches
• Stepping off the train in Olomouc to see Ludvik standing right there
• Warm hospitality of the Hajeks
• Tours of Olomouc and Prague that you simply couldn't buy
• Meeting Malte's parents
• The Reichstag at night
• Real snow

Lessons learned:

• Skiing can sometimes lead to wrist fractures
• 10 minutes with the phone triage nurse beats going to a hospital in a foreign country
• You can still ski with a broken wrist!
• We packed way too much suff.
• OK, a little snow is great, but 12 straight days of cold weather gets a little annoying during a vacation.
• The Czech word for both "winter" and "cold" is "zima"
• While it sucks to get a 4:30 AM phone call that your son has been in an accident, learning everyone's OK kinda cancels that out.

See the pix in the Gallery .

Thanks to CIEE, the Hajek's, the Voelkoi's, and especially the Meme!

Consistency isn't a skill of mine -- nor of Tom's. Apparently, if you add two mildly slacker attitudes and an inferior blog interface then this is what you get. Still, it was worth a try.

Look us up on Facebook! The whole family has jumped in - though who knows how long it will hold our attention. I guess it depends on when the next new, shiny thing comes down the pike. For now you can search for us on Facebook by email (tom, ian, or ellen at periodic-tabloid.com; find Jean with luckyjean at gmail.com).

The photo album still gets updated from time to time, so from time to time you might want to check that out.

                                                                                        -- Jean

Some of you may have heard that we have an exchange student with us now. Majeed arrived a week ago, and he'll head off to his permanent host family soon. He's a great kid, even if he likes NASCAR, ha ha. But he also likes video games and chatting online, horseback riding and TV (faves include Lost and Angel; I'm going to hook him on Heroes). And he's got a dry sense of humor; appropriate, since he comes from Bahrain, a sandy oil country in the Persian Gulf. I am ashamed to say that I had to ask the almighty Wikipedia for information.

But how lucky I am to have had the opportunity to do just that. Bahrain is a beautiful tourist destination and home to the most amazing, modern architecture I have ever seen. Majeed screened for us a DVD about Bahrain, and he showed Ian and me his long robe for festive occasions. It's wicked cool. And Tom's learning about how to prepare halal food.

Of course, learning goes both ways: Majeed learned how to sail yesterday. It was decent weather for sailing. Check out the pictures.

Someday I will finish processing and uploading the vacation pictures … but today is not that day. 

- Jean

San Diego and Maine were the laid-back parts of vacation (mostly). Except for the drive to get there, San Diego was leisurely walks on the beach, relaxing in the cool weather, and awesome sushi. And, except for the driving, much of our time in Maine involved napping on the deck. Or couch. Or bed. Sometimes with a book flopped open on your chest.

Anyhow, I uploaded a few more pictures; just go to the last couple pages of the album for the new ones.

Stay cool --

                                    -- Jean

The Vacation That Went On and On has finally ended. Locations visited: Phoenix, Surprise (or East LA, as Tom calls it), Youngtown, Sun City, the Grand Canyon -- all in Arizona. Then San Diego in California. Band camp for Ellen, Sarasota for Ian, and New York City (by way of friends in PA) for Ludvík and me. And then Old Town, Portland, Trenton and Bar Harbor in Maine.

We hiked, sailed, performed a solo, played paintball, napped, hiked some more, walked on beaches of two oceans, saw a bear, hiked some more, visited friends and family ... and I'm sure there's other stuff I'm forgetting.

We also said goodbye to Ludvík. He left Portland for NYC and on to the Czech Republic on July 18th. He went back home taller, heavier, and with a lot more hair. We miss him a lot; good thing we've got e-mail and chat.

I have a zillion pictures, and it's going to take a while to go through them, resize them, and load them up. Here is a start: Fort Knox in Maine.

Stay cool --

                                                Jean