Catalina

Geoff & Xandie at the monument

Pat at the waterfront fountain

Wrigley monument  

Wrigley monument  from afar

Avalon Casino

SC Yacht Club

A mini-vacation was just what we needed so we took the ferry 26 miles across the sea to an uncrowded and cooler Catalina. On the one rainy day we did inside "activities"; the semi-submarine tour, meals indoors and a movie at the Casino theater. On the sunny days we toured the town, went up to the Wrigley monument and cactus gardens, walked along the waterfront and did mostly window shopping. Almost makes one think about retiring there...

Catalina tile past & present :

It's about time!

It's been a long while since the last post; we're now 4 months back and very much readjusted to life here in the USA. A quick rundown:

Xandie~  is 13 now and doing really well in her first semester as a Claremont High freshman. Subjects include honors English & bio, German 1, PE,  Journalism and Algebra 2. Art lessons, orchestra, horseback riding and community service round out the extracurricular activities. She loves reading, Manga and crime shows.

Geoff~  was back to work before any of us and is busily heading the Harvey Mudd CS clinic teams (student research projects), traveling to conferences and site visits,  and professing. He continues to spend lots of $ on camera lenses to support his photography addiction. (He actually managed to take some photos of Portugal when there for a conference last month.)

playing with the CCSM recorders for Zip Code Day 9/17/11

Pat~  has been very overwhelmed trying to remember how I did everything before we went away on sabbatical. It's gradually coming back and the responsibility of running a district-wide elementary string program is almost under control. I've also switched orchestras and now play with the Claremont Symphony Orchestra since the previous one, Claremont Concert Orchestra, began rehearsing twice a week. I'm slowly building up my cello students again and have been playing with local music groups that are in need of a sometimes ditzy cellist.

4 weeks back

flowers fromTJ's

At 4 weeks one would think we've gotten the house back to normal and had finished the unpacking.  Unfortunately, that's not the case. We are making progress daily and even if I just get 1 or 2 boxes unpacked it's a step forward. Today I've been working on the office and living room books and I've decided to slow down and enjoy the unpacking process; rediscovering old photo albums, culling old/duplicate books, and reboxing old stuff we never/hardly ever use.

beginning to feel like home

We can now seriously start to move back in our house; all the rooms are freshly, or at least recently, painted and the rugs have been cleaned or well vacuumed. Xandie has outgrown her Ikea bunk bed (low bed with a reading loft) and now has a beautiful new daybed in her very blue room. I can finally move back into my home office and the living/music room is ready for company/students.  My mantra seems to be, "keep unpacking, keep unpacking, keep unpacking"...

Home sweet home

front patio

We're back!
Arrived July 8 @ 9a.m. one hour before we left Wellington, NZ. After a fairly flawless flight we arrived minus 1/2 of our luggage. The airline reassured us it would be sent out to our house as soon as it arrived (eventually) and so we hired a shuttle van to take us, the luggage that successfully made the trip, and the bicycle back home to Claremont. Then we slept.

Later in the day we were semi-functional and managed to take stock of what we needed to do to get our basic needs covered: food, shower/towels, bedding, etc. The upside of leasing a semi-furnished house is that the kitchen was provisioned and we had all the basic furniture in the house. We also had to go rent a car for 5 days.

Four days in ~

• All luggage was recovered and delivered
• Grocery shopping at Traders & Von's
• Car shopping successful (bought a Toyota)
• Unpacking slow but sure
• Found a painter to re-do 2 rooms before we totally unpack
• Kitties happy :~)

Not bad and looking forward to another day.

the final countdown

silver fern suspended ball in Welly

Tomorrow we have much to do. First return the car we've been leasing from our first landlady in Chch. to her half-bro here in Welly, then pick up a cargo van rental (to hold 3 people, our luggage and Geoff's bike box) to take us to the airport Friday, then a final run to the Sally Army with yet more donations, buy a few groceries to tide us over, and "ta-da", a final clean up of the house before we take off way too early on Friday a.m. to fly to L.A., USA via Brisbane, AUS via Wellington, NZ. Wow, 3 countries in less than 24 hours!

One week left...

So many little loose ends to take care of (but less than when we came over) before we leave NZ. It's a bittersweet feeling; wanting to return home, but sad to leave our sabbatical experience behind us.
Today I have a list of lasts:
last grocery shopping
last firewood run
last coffee with a good friend
last change of linen
last library visit
and a probably a few more...

going home twice

Sometimes it's hard to understand my dear husband. About a month ago Geoff realized he needed to use more of his grant $ and should attend a USENIX conference in Portland, OR.
So, here we are about 3-1/2 weeks away from returning home and he'll be flying from NZ to the US and back again. Maybe he likes to feel cosy and cramped at high altitudes for long extended periods of time, but I would have found a different conference (either here now or there later) that wouldn't have required quite so much jet-setting.

"Cello 4 Kids!" site

I've been tinkering with my website for teaching cello, Cello 4 Kids!, and think most of the bugs are worked out now ;~) I'm hoping to make it easy for my future cello students and families to find and share information when I get back to Claremont, CA. I'm also very excited about my new venture of starting younger beginning students (Suzuki style) and adding group classes; CELLO POWER!

Things I miss about "home"

(in no particular order)

• my house, cats, & garden
• U.S. family & friends
• Trader Joe's
• Mexican food
• cheap gas 
• the Claremont community 
• teaching music
• central heating

6 weeks left ...

We're now in the mode of winding up loose ends here in NZ and the reality of returning home soon to Claremont has finally hit. It's hard to believe nearly a year has gone by; time plays tricks on me and moves quickly one minute and drags on the next. I'm really looking forward to returning to my cats, house, garden, family and friends. "There's no place like home, there's no place like home...."