By admin , 14 November 2013

Run with Nora in the dark

It was pitch dark tonight. We went out at 6.00 pm and it was very dark. Nora didn't mind. Her first run in a few weeks, she enjoyed it. Didn't want to wear the hat. I explained her halfway to put her hands in her pocket but she didn't really listen.

I crossed the 2012 threshold tonight, a good feeling.

By admin , 12 November 2013

One more mile

I'm at 378 miles now -- one more mile and I'll be at the 2012 year-end mileage. Was a nice run, early in the morning. Saw police on the onramp of 66 at Glebe, probably checking HOV or stickers.

By Guus , 9 November 2013

Run in my birthday weekend

The Zane family is here and we're spending a nice time together. I went for a run at 9.00 am after waking up at 7.30 am. I didn't have breakfast yet and in the last mile I felt very low energy. Having breakfast as I am typing this.

By admin , 7 November 2013

English sentences

We only talk to Nora in Bulgarian and Dutch, and she is getting more vocal every day. Everybody says that this is the way to go, since she will learn English here from everybody else. In fact, in a few years Dutch and Bulgarian will be the minority languages for her.

Still, it is a little scary to not explicitly teach Nora English. Will she be okay in school? Will she be able to talk to her friends?

A week ago, we heard Nora make her first real sentence in English. When we met Tristan and Calla on the street, Nora told them: "balloons! there!"

And toddlers have a great memory for language. Yesterday we overheard her talking to her self and saying: "happy birthday to you". The only place she would have heard that was when we sang at Ingrid's birthday, two weeks ago.

Topic
dailylife
By admin , 4 November 2013

Early but not too early

While I ran at 7.00 am it felt like 8.00 am -- end of Daylight Savings Time will do that to you. So slept in nicely and then went for a fast run, felt good. Even did the 4.5 distance.

Ran with my hat on which was good. It was 37 degrees. Cold arms and hands for the first 10 minutes but then nice.

By admin , 3 November 2013

Walk to Washington-Lee

This morning we went for a walk to Washington-Lee, the high school near us. It's less than half a mile but we took our time since Nora was walking with us. Since a few weeks we let her walk longer distances, without the stroller, and she loves it. She stops and looks at everything: flowers, stones, carved pumpkins ("poes!").

At Washington-Lee we saw the build-up for this afternoon's political rally when President Obama will speak to support Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor. The elections are this Tuesday.

We walked back and did some shopping at Giant. This was one of the first time Nora was walking in the supermarket and she enjoyed it. I had to remind her a few times not to touch the merchandise but she did well.

A nice Sunday morning. Nora went to sleep at 1.00 pm, which is quite late for her especially since today is the first day without Daylight Savings Time.

Last night we had a common meal with several of our neighbors at the 'taverna', which was great.

Topic
dailylife
By admin , 2 November 2013

Preparing for Obama

When I ran past the Washington-Lee highschool I saw several trucks on loading chairs and equipment. President Obama will visit there tomorrow, pretty cool -- it's a few minutes from our house.

I surpassed my absolute minimum mileage for the year today. In 2010 I ran 358 miles and I consider that the lowest I should go in a year. Next milestone is the 2012 number, 379 miles.