Life with Liebels

After leaving Paros, we landed in New York. Deprived of bagels, taxis and large buildings, we certainly indulged ourselves while there. Four fast paced days were spent bouncing from one event to the next with a small scared dog who was not so quick to adjust to her new surroundings. I got to catch up with some old Parian friends, Pascal and Alex, who were in NY for a day. We saw our friends Scott, Sarah, Alexei and Katie for a birthday dinner and then a great party afterwards. I hung out with friend Nils, whom I met in Paros, but now lives in Brooklyn. So I left Greece to basically see all my friends from Greece. Jen had her fill of the city and was soon required to take off for Buffalo, while I had two more days to spend in the city and get some work done. 

After a whirlwind 4 days, I headed to Los Angeles to see my dear sisters and close family. The warm up to Christmas was marked with lots of togetherness. We barely left the house, but we had such a wonderful time. The girls were out of school, the house was packed with family and we had so much food and wine to keep us busy for days. 

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 Making masks to fool around with. We had a Mom, Dad and YiaYia mask to boot!

 Cheesy photo grin

 Christmas Dinner

 Everyone dressed up for the occasion.

 Two wiiild and crazy guys.

 Mimi and Zoe

 Family Christmas Tree

 Candlelight church service

 Dance party with Baba

 Julie got the third edition of her lovely blog book from me.

 There was a new kitten that Santa brought that everyone loved very much.

It was a joyous Christmas and it seemed like we all never wanted it to end, but this is the holidays and we just roll one occasion into the next. Next up, Michelle and I moved over to see San Francisco. Our mission was to find an apartment, visit some old friends, introduce me to the town and have some fun. We accomplished all of this except an apartment, but I did get a very good idea of the neighborhoods and where I will want to live.

 So long 2010!

 The famous Painted Ladies

 Mimi helping me find a great place.

 Lovely dinner with some old friends Corey and Katie.

After our trip, I left for Boston for a few days for a business conference and then came back to see my Mom on her first trip to Bakersfield, CA to see the little ones, as well as, her first time meeting little Jack. Unfortunately, I took zero pictures during this trip, but we had a great time relaxing at home, playing games, going to Athena's kindergarten, an art museum and lots of trips to the playground. After she took off, I had plenty of work to do after some added responsibilities to my position. I've been staying at Julie's house for the holidays and more now, so I feel I've become part of the routine a little.

 My office.

 A typical evening of bedtime stories and playing with the kitten.

Dash(ell)

That's all, then tomorrow it's back to San Francisco for round 2 of apartment hunting!

Always Snowing in Buffalo

As much as I dislike shoveling, I love snow. Buffalo, luckily, is a great place to experience snow almost every day! And at least I know LouLou is a girl after my own heart.

New homes for all

So our time in Paros has come to a close. As Jen and I finish this chapter of our lives, we are starting again in a new place. After much anguish and several tricky situations, we have decided to stay in the US after our holiday visit. The job economy in Europe was too tricky for US citizens to break into.

So we have decided to relocate to San Francisco! San Fran had always been an option if we couldn't do Europe and now it seems to be happening. I'm going to look for places to rent or sublet and soon Jen should be able to join me.

So everything changed at the last minute and Louloudi is no longer going to stay with a dogsitter and will be taking her first airplane rides for a total of nearly 12 hours. We hastily got a carrier and her a ticket. Our two foster puppies must go back to the kennel until a new home can be found for them. And I am busy closing up the house and repairing some of the damage that happened after the worst winter storm in years has just passed over.

The storm took out several large branches and littered the yard with debris from the sea. Waves were crashing up over the 8 meter wall and into our yard. A portion of the path near our neighbors collapsed entirely and the area where we normally walked the dogs is no longer accessible.

Perhaps it was a sign that maybe we should take off?

In other news, I wanted to provide a little shelter for our little guys who must go back to the kennel. The reason we had them in the first place was because there simply aren't enough dog houses for everyone. The puppies have been such a joy to have here and they will be missed dearly. I was feeling crafty, so I found some old shipping blocks, saw them in half and assembled a sturdy tent. I made the rest of the planks into a floor to keep the dogs dry. I stapled an old paint tarp to make a rain proof tent and used a rug that was on the way to the trash as the cover.

The end result was a not too shabby, very greek looking dog house that can easily fit two little puppies or one big dog. So hopefully, this will make some dog a happy little camper.

New homes for all!

What makes Jen happy?

Sorry for not posting more often. Life tends to get in the way of documenting our lives.

So what makes Jen happy? Here are a few things.

Waking up with some puppies climbing in to bed.

Her friend Sarah

Freshly painted and cleaned kitchen cabinets

Fresh Naan on the grill for Indian night

Not having to do any of the cooking.

Musical entertainment

 Sleeping puppies

The Thanksgiving Spirit

While being on Paros during such an important holiday had its appeal, it also meant this would be the first time we would be without any immediate family members. The Metaxa family had invited us to a great dinner with about 20 or so. Everyone was asked to bring a dish and we all ate fabulously. This marked the first time I've ever been indoors for a party at the Metaxa house and it was very festive. 

Before the dinner, we were graced with the Thanksgiving Spirit (Petros in drag) who told of Thanksgiving and the American passage of gobbling food.

He went around the table asking if you were American, while about 3 quarters of the table were not, he would then baptize them with their new American name. Theodore became Johnny, Maria became Sally, Hufwost (sp?) became Roger and so forth.

Jen, Sigrid and myself, represented the "real" Americans in a way (we got to keep our names), as we have done this tradition all our lives, while the rest had maybe a distant connection to the country. It was such a fun evening and there was plenty of laughs and high spirited conversation to last the night.

We ate clam chowder to start, followed by a wonderful meal that had sweet potatoes with marshmallow, stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and home made biscuits. Jen made the mashed potatoes and biscuits, which we now have enough leftover mashed potatoes to last us til Christmas!

To all the family and friends we could not see yesterday, we wish you a happy holiday and many belt tightening recipes!