explaining to do

Well Tuesday’s post was aborted abruptly, wasn’t it?
We had some trouble with our “home hub” – the wireless router supplied by BT for our internet. It started acting funny Monday, not letting us connect to our home hub, but still giving out its wi-fi signal. (Background – BT has a neat thing called FON where anyone who has the wireless router makes their signal available to other users, and anyone who subscribes can get online wherever there is a wireless connection. Basically every home with BT broadband is a hotspot.) So we were still online, but we had to log in each time. That’s how I messed up on the blog – I was typing away, but had not yet logged in to the network. So when I hit “post” it took me to the BT sign in page, and of course the blogger auto save wasn’t working because I wasn’t online!

Anyway, I got to thinking maybe there was a problem with our phone, and that’s why the internet wasn’t working, so I looked, and Bob had plugged the router into the phone line trying to figure it out earlier. So I plugged it back the regular way, and after that it didn’t work at all. Tried it a dozen ways; nothing. The power light didn’t even come on green on the router. Grrr. When Bob got home from work he called them up – got an Indian – talked for 30 minutes, tried different things, installed and reset, still nothing. So they decided the router is broken and they will send us a new one. Monday. ! So I have another 5 days without internet, which means no veg box this week unless I can find the phone number somewhere, or get online somewhere else.

Feedback question – is it better if I break things up into bite-sized posts, or just ramble on in one long post?

My days are already getting mixed up.

Tuesday I got another veg box; got the mini this time, but added a salad box, and the fruit box. The idea is so cool. I got a swede; this one is bigger than last week’s two combined. There were also carrots, potatoes, onions, parsnips, and a big head of broccoli. The salad had vine-ripened tomatoes, yellow and red peppers, avocados, baby lettuces and a bag of mixed greens. The fruit was pineapple, mango, bananas, oranges, and apples. I tell you, Florida has nothing on Spain for good oranges.
For dinner we tried a new recipe – Thai Basil Chicken. It was very good, but the house smelled of garlic for awhile.

Time to change a diaper.

Well, well. The router arrived today. It is a different design than the old one. Maybe it will last longer.

Anyway, this week I met the neighbor to the south of us. His name is Bob. (The neighbor to the north is Robert, so there are 3 Bobs in a row). He will be 77 this year. He was very chatty and told me all about his family – he has at least one son and one daughter, and was one of 5 children, himself. It was pretty cool out, and I wasn’t dressed to stay, or he would have talked all afternoon, I think.
The next day his wife was out, too. She couldn’t get a word in edgewise for all Bob’s chatting, but seemed friendly enough. Bob asked about my husband’s work schedule. And I said he was going to night shift soon, so we’d have to be quiet. They both insisted that we WERE very quiet – they never heard the children unless they were outside! Do people expect to hear from one house to the other? They said they like to come out and visit with the children. He said a lot of things, but it would get long to type it all up.

Yesterday Bob went to a Digital Camera Club meeting in a nearby village. They meet in the Methodist Church hall, but he didn’t see that at first, so had to stop in a pub to ask for the church. There were 7 others there, and they were all interested in Bob as the new guy. He thinks he’ll make it a regular thing.

I got an oil delivery this week, as our tank was low. We didn’t have any information on the tank, so had to wing it, but it seems to be working out. I didn’t realize it was kerosene, for starters. Then there is the matter of how much. Bob measured the tank in feet, then had to convert cubic feet to liters, because that’s how it comes. Plus subtract the number of inches we already had… Math IS useful sometimes! We figured it right, after all. I’m glad we got the oil price figured into our rent, it cost about $700.

Oh, the children.
One day Cedwryck came running into the kitchen (where I was) and tripped on the rug in the doorway, fell forward and hit his head hard against the fridge. Got up crying that his finger hurt.
Ella has developed a Mama sonar. Whenever I am out of her sight she starts calling (loudly) “Mama.” I will answer “Ella” and she wanders around looking for me as we call back and forth.
William really likes his big noisy family. He will smile at the mere sound of Naysha laughing, and is happiest when we are all in the same room. He is also very ticklish and laughs when I change his clothes. I have heard that the tickle reaction is a learned one, but he squirmed and laughed before I ever thought of tickling him.

So I guess that’s it for now.