Pairs of Brothers

These good looking guys are cousins of my husband and, the two sets of brothers are cousins to each other. I lack the eloquency to express what it meant to spend quality time with the relatives up close in Korea, even though it was a remarkable experience. One point of interest that begs comment, is that the second set of boys really do look exactly alike-minus the age difference. And, they both look just like their daddy. It must be an odd experience for that youngest one to look at his older bro and dad and realize that he is seeing an image of himself in coming decades.

Popular Place

Having just finished the book One Thousand Chestnut Trees, I am inspired to post a photo of my 2004 time spent in Korea. The amazing thing about this temple at the base of Kwanak Mountain is that it was close enough that I walked to it almost every day while I was there.

This is a few hours early but...

Happy Birthday Mama Bird!
Hope you have a good one.
Had to put my thinking cap on to find a good celebration.
No way am I going back up in the snow like I did on Billy's.
Or, birth a child to celebrate with you year by year like I did for Dave once.
What I did was book a professional cleaning for my house tomorrow. This will be my favorite birthday of yours yet!

The Snow Walk

Wasn't really very pretty.






But this was very pretty.

Happy Birthday Brothers

We celebrated for you with a snow shoe hike in the mountains. Now I can take THAT off my list of "things to try before I die." It wasn't too bad. The only problem with snow-shoeing is that you have to deal with snow.

A better time was yesterday when I grabbed a few free hours to hike around a little at the 2nd Red Rock exit and take pics of the formations for which the area is a namesake. It was cold and overcast with a spitting sky, but at least none of the white stuff.

Random Recollections

While exploring options of air carriers to transport the family to the reunion, DH jokingly asked me if a certain one still offers peanuts. Just the mention of the name of that particular airline took me back to the same indescribable feeling I had the last time I traveled with them. It was the last leg of my journey home from Korea in December. I certainly didn't notice the snacks. (I always decline the snacks anyway-peanuts and pretzels-YUCK!) No, my mind was completely pre-occupied with one joyous and determined yearning, "Just get me home."

The opposite experience is that I still can't listen to some of the music on my MP3 player that I listened to in Korea. It is tunes that Justin plays on the piano, so, of course, when I heard them over there it made me too homesick. Now I can't play them without getting that sinking feeling in spite of being safely back home.

Speaking of airplane food-I highly recommend the vegetarian Indian cuisine on Singapore Air. A funny thing happened on the way home from Korea. I had my usual aisle seat. The fellow in the center seat whined about wanting my aisle seat so vehemently that I reluctantly agreed to swap with him. (And my evil little heart was gratified to discover that he ended up with a metal box under the seat in front of him which allowed him even less leg room than if he had stayed in the center. There is a REASON I like the aisle seat, but under the circumstances I could be gracious and trade. He could hardly ask to swap back!) Turns out the lady in the window seat was his wife. She didn't have any objection at all to not having to sit beside him so, I ended up between them the whole trip. This confused the flight attendants. Somehow they thought she was me and I was her. Evidently I was the only one on the flight who had requested a Western vegetarian meal, which they accidently gave to my seatmate on the window side. Apologetically, they offered me the only remaining alternative-her Indian vegetarian meal. So, while the dear lady from India beside me was poking doubtfully at a slimy omelette thing, I was smacking my lips over tastily flavored rice and lentils and some kind of vegie meat ball. Under the circumstances, she could hardly ask to swap!

On the other hand, I can't recommend the food on Thai Air between Incheon and Hong-Kong at all. It was a total barf bag.