Popcorn and movies

Everything is going crazy blooming in our yard and I'm amazed to go out and find trees growing wild right in the middle of the garden. If anyone needs some trees in the area we have a veritable nursery here. We try to move them when we can but they just shoot up wild, maples mostly. They seem to really like our soil. That picture just above is is of something called lesser celandine and little yellow flowers are growing everywhere this week out of the foliage you see in that photo. The top picture is an almond tree, or at least I think it is. I'm not sure because it's really small, another border plant I plan on "adopting" before the new neighbors come, shhh don't tell!

The in-laws came on Sunday and had lunch which was nice but our heater ran out of fuel the night before, oops! so it was a little chilly. I can't believe it ran out again. Not the winter to buy an uninsulated house! Anyway mil was a little sour which this time at least I could forgive her for. When we asked her if she was cold she said "I'm dealing with it," in that snippy voice I know she uses when something isn't quite right. I did feel bad for them coming all this way and being in a cold house. We had a fire so it wasn't that cold in the lower part of the house but I could see she was thinking that we have his problem all the time and we couldn't have convinced her otherwise. We have great radiators in the house, huge cast iron ones from the last century and we have a fire nearly every night so usually it's very warm in our house. The timing was just really bad for running out of fuel.



The fuel truck is coming tomorrow though so we'll fill the heater again. It's the third time in six months!



Vacation for the kids starts on the 11th at the end of next week and we're trying to plan some things for us to do, or at least I am. I just found out that Seb is going to China for two weeks and those two weeks are the vacation time, sigh. He was somehow thinking in some twisted logic that I'd actually prefer him gone during the kids vacation, not thinking about the fact that 24-7 with two small kids would be hard alone. Since I just found out a few days ago I flat out asked mil while they were here what they were doing for the two week break but they have the other grandkids one week and I felt that she was still bitter about -The Incident- so I didn't push it. Seb told me not to ask because he doesn't want to feel obligated so I feel really caught in a web I've woven myself. It would be nice if they came for two days and then took the kids off on a jaunt for an overnight trip, or at least Little S. I thought about suggesting it but given the tone of the afternoon and Seb's darty eyes I thought I'd better come up with other plans.

So I'm trying to find a short two nighter thing we can do so we aren't trapped in the burbs for two weeks solid. All my neighbors will be gone so the town will likely be dead. We'll do a chateau or two or maybe even a day in Paris but I'd really like to go away for a few days on the train, someplace I've never been. If anyone has any idea of what a good, little Spring break destination is with kids in Europe (has to be quite the last minute deal and not too far off the beaten path) please tell me about it. Or hey while I'm thinking of it, if anyone is bored and wants to come for an overnight or weekend stay I'm taking reservations for the two weeks. And to sweeten the deal we're definitely going to buy this machine and charge it to Seb's company so please come and bring popcorn and movies!

I'm serious.