6 keys on my laptop keyboard stopped working a few days ago. It really hampered my ability to get work done! When you can't type RVBF45 and sometimes A, you can't write much! Fortunately I had a repair plan that was still active, and now I have a new keyboard on my laptop.

I went to Dio's game yesterday--it was really intense, with both teams being well-matched. Dio's team won 1-0. Inga played tonight, but I wasn't able to go (I was cooking dinner and also had a car with a leaking tire that I didn't dare drive on). They won 6-0 with Inga scoring 4 and assisting 1. She had some beautiful goals, apparently!

Here are some pictures from a game last week.

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Our internet was down again for a few days...not easy when I work at home and the kids have lots of homework that requires internet! They were all up on campus at Eric's office until after 11 pm last night.

We're enjoying the cooler fall weather. I've had to add winter comforters to the beds and start wearing long pants and long-sleeved shirts.

No games this weekend. I have an errand to run into the Indianapolis area, but that will be done before lunch. We'll probably do something together...who knows? I suppose we could watch the university homecoming football game. But we're not that into American football, really. The kids have been going to a lot of the high school games, but it's mostly to socialize. I don't think they watch the game very much!

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Dio and Ivy both had games. I watched Dio's (home). They lost 2-4. It was drastically colder than yesterday and I had a light jacket on and had to fetch a blanket from the car. It's so weird being cold!

Eric went to Ivy's game (away); they won 1-0 with Ivy scoring that point, but apparently didn't play very well.

Still eating our way through the post-party leftovers. We'll probably need to make a real meal tomorrow.

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Fancy dance

Dio and Inga went to the high school homecoming dance yesterday...and I still don't have any pictures! They are waiting for their friends to send them the photos. We had an "after party" at our house with tons of food. The kids put on the original "Mean Girls" movie until it was time for the party to end. We have heaps of leftover food now.

We're all tired as I didn't get home from dropping friends off and cleaning up the kitchen until well after 1 am. We decided to mutually cancel our usual Sunday potluck & swim since everyone was tired.

I played Ultimate again--it's been really fun and I think I'll keep it up. It's definitely a good contrast to exercising by myself.

The weather is supposed to shift from upper 80s (28-30 C) to low 60s (16-17 C) for the high. Wow! We are going to have a fire and make Smores with this cooler weather.

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Driving day

After some work meetings in the morning, I spent the rest of the day and evening in the car...picking up a cooktop, checking out Habitat for Humanity Restore, looking for shoes for Inga at a thrift store, meeting with the German consul regarding my citizenship application, meeting with a kitchen cabinet store to get an estimate...I got back home, dropped off snacks and uniforms for Inga's team, picked up Dio, and had about a half hour before I had to drop off Dio and then drive Ivy to her practice (1 hr away). While she was practicing, I had to charge the car so I went grocery shopping while it charged and then visited another Goodwill before pickup time. So much driving!

I managed to find Inga a great pair of shoes at Goodwill for the homecoming dance. They looked like they'd never been worn. I also found myself two dresses and a winter coat for Dio. (Eric said he'd take it if Dio didn't want it.)

Inga's knee is hurting, so she had to sit out today's game, and probably this Saturday's. Dio is playing again and his ankle is feeling good; he's careful to keep it taped before each game.

Yesterday Ivy's team had a game that got cut short (mercy rule) after they were ahead 7-0. Ivy scored 4 goals! I was there but going back and forth between her game and a cross-country meet that Dio's girlfriend was running in.

(I haven't mentioned it yet, but she and Dio have known each other since birth! Eric and I are good friends with her parents. Her mom and I were pregnant together and we shared the same birth pool. She was born 3 weeks after Dio. How's that for a long-term friendship??)

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We got internet on Wednesday and life is speeding by! I played Ultimate last Sunday and this Sunday with the team that Eric and the kids have been playing on for years. I was pleasantly sore for a few days after last weekend's game.

We did our usual Sunday swim + potluck afterwards. The kids said they didn't have much homework, but once we got home, they "discovered" lots more to do! How does that happen? They had all weekend to get it done and now it's almost 11 pm and they are still up working.

I have finished repairing the bank of 3 windows that had rot and termite damage. Good as new and looking beautiful!

Some pictures of the parts I had to rebuild with new oak (completely rotten away), what the termite damage looks like on the back side of the boards I was able to keep, and halfway through stripping off the old finish. I used a combination of denatured alcohol and lacquer thinner.

This window was made possible by Abatron wood restoration products LiquidWood and WoodEpox. Not a commercial...I just love their stuff!  

Zari is away for the weekend with the U of T Outdoor Club. It's weird not talking to her for an hour or two every day!

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Internet outage

No internet until Wednesday at the earliest...a big storm blew in Saturday afternoon while we were out of town. Lightening hit our big pine tree and toppled the top 2/3. It crashed down on our driveway and sidewalk and took out power and internet lines with it.

Power was back a few hours later but internet will be a while!

I'm up on campus in Eric's office so I can post :)

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12 hour fingerprints

Zari had to travel to the US today to do her fingerprints for a German citizenship application. She took her bike, biked to the train station, got on the train, transferred to the bus, got off at the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, then crossed the border/bridge to the US side. Then she had an 8-mile bike ride to the Post Office.

Then she had to do it all in reverse.

Phew!

Still super hot here: 93F / 34 C. The kids went to a football game this evening and lasted about 2/3 of the way through. They are now thumping around in the attic (Ivy has 2 friends sleeping over and Inga has a friend over).|

The big hole in the wall is looking a bit better thanks to my miracle handyman.

I might be going fossil hunting early tomorrow morning with a friend. That's if I can wake up early enough!

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Too hot!

It's been 93F with the heat index well over 100. Soccer practices and games are delayed or cancelled. I'm ready for the heat to break at the end of this week.

Zari is back in Toronto and me her new roommate. She complained about having to buy lots of food to get herself started for the year. She also has a different size bed so had to buy new sheets.

Not a whole lot else that's newsworthy. Oh, we have a massive hole in the carriage house at the moment. We had to take out a bank of 3 windows that are 116 years old. I'm going to restore them as there was water/termite damage and rot. Don't worry, my amazing does-everything guy will put it all back together!

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Deportation scare

Zari flew back to Canada today and had a big scare at her connection in Warsaw. She applied to renew her visa back in February, and she had a temporary extension that had expired 4 days previously. Despite contacting the Prefecture 4+ times to get an "attestation de prolongation", they never responded. We had already contacted the French border police about her case, and they said that it wouldn't be a big deal and to print out proof that we had attempted to contact the Prefecture.

Well...turns out it was a huge deal in Poland! They almost deported Zari but she got off with a warning, but only after being totally freaked out and feeling like she was a criminal.

She's back in Toronto now and all is well. But that was scary!

It's so hot here that soccer practices and games have been cancelled or moved later into the evening. The heat should break by the end of this week.

I'm tired! Bedtime for me :)

Oh, I just had an article come out in AIMS journal: "Imagining Breech Birth Without Borders." Check it out here:

https://www.aims.org.uk/journal/item/breech-birth-training

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Milwaukee film premiere

Just returned from a 3-day trip to Milwaukee, with my first night visiting an old friend and my second night in downtown Milwaukee. I went for the film premiere of the "Allowed To Birth" documentary. It was so fun to dress up and be all fancy!

I'm glad to be back home and not driving. Between the trip to Chicago and then, a few days later, the trip to Milwaukee, I'm ready to stay put.

Dio was trying on clothes for the Homecoming dance...which led to the kids pulling out all sorts of things from our closets. Inga and Ivy both tried on my wedding dress! Fun times.

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Soccer and storms

Ivy's team was partway to their soccer game when the bus turned around. Storms were forecast so the game was cancelled! Eric was halfway there as well. And we got hit with a big, but brief, downpour.

Inga's team decided to wait it out, so they started 45 minutes late. They won 7-1, with Inga scoring 4 goals in the first half. They played mostly junior varsity in the 2nd half because they were so ahead.

I went to Chicago yesterday to celebrate the launch of a new direct-entry midwifery program at Kennedy-King College. A brainchild of Star August Ali and the Black Midwifery Collective, this program at a local community college will train home birth midwives. Really amazing work! The event was attended by all sorts of dignitaries, including national, state, and local politicians.

It was a lot of driving in one day! And I have another big drive ahead this weekend when I head up to Milwaukee.

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Outdoor embroidery

I'm attaching this large embroidered applique with invisible thread. I discovered that it's so much easier to do outdoors--I can actually see the thread when the sunlight hits it!

It was the big annual music and food festival across the street. We love soaking up the atmosphere.

Dio took the SAT this morning. We were out the door by 7 am. He said it went ok. We had to get his fingerprints done again (the last time, his first and last names were switched). While I was waiting for Dio, I went to the Habitat Restore (donated home supplies, some used and some new) and found a light fixture and two motion detectors for the carriage house. Then I went to a big antique/consignment store next door until it was time to pick him up.

On the drive home we talked about what he wants to study at university, what he wants to do with his life, his goals for job/career, etc.

Inga had a game this afternoon. The weather was amazing--sunny but not too hot. Her team didn't play very well especially in the first half. Inga scored the only 2 goals in the second half, plus another beautiful header that was not counted for some reason. They ultimately lost 2-5 but at least Inga got some good action in. Eric was so frustrated! He totally stresses himself out when he watches soccer games. Honestly, it's better if I don't sit by him because then it stresses me out.

After soccer, we relaxed and then some of our friends stopped by to pick up extra cherry tomatoes. Inga and Dio ended up going over to their house for swimming, dinner, and kitten snuggling until late this evening.

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Toilet diving

For months, the toilet in the kid's bathroom has been plugging. Every. Single. Time.

It started when our house was being rented. My maintenance guy went over, used every chemical known to human kind, remove the toilet, and snaked the drain all the way to outside the house. Nothing. No reason for it not to flush.

It kept plugging.

We got back to the States. It kept plugging. Even a small bit of toilet paper would refuse to go down. Water would slowly leak past and with 4-5 plunging sessions, the water would eventually grudgingly clear.

I was talking with my maintenance man today, saying, "I bet that there's something stuck in the trap of the toilet. This happened to my dad back when my sister was baby--he had a toilet that just wouldn't flush, tried everything he could think of, and finally took the toilet out. there was a spoon wedged deep in the siphon."

So tonight...I geared myself up and stuck my hand down the toilet. Yes, the joys of being an adult. Just about 1" in, I hit something almost completely blocking the passageway from one side to another. I worked at if for a while until I got it loose.

Voila. The culprit. Exactly the right size to fit the entire width of the toilet siphon and not budge.

 

~~~

So what else is new? We all got woken up at 3:30 am by a tremendous flash of light and thunderclap. I never managed to fall back asleep. There were thunderstorms on and off the rest of the night, but nothing quite as loud as what woke us all up.

More storms rolling in throughout the day. On the up side, it's a great time to pull weeds because the soil is soaked and loose. I did a bit of weeding this evening.

Oh...and it's our 28th anniversary today! We went out to eat at a local Peruvian/Mexican restaurant. We don't have any fancy places to eat in town, but this one is decent for basic dishes and tacos.

Dio, Inga, and Inga's best friend went to a football game and then to a restaurant. I love seeing them do things together. Ivy is at a sleepover. We have soccer games (Dio) and soccer practice (Ivy and Inga) tomorrow. Dio sprained his ankle today, so he probably won't be playing.

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Storms

Dramatic thunder and lightning, pouring rain on and off today.

Lots of meetings with HVAC companies to get quotes for heating and cooling systems. I am THIS CLOSE to DIY'ing the mini splits. I know I can do it and the cost would be 1/3-1/6 of what I'm being quoted.

Breech work today was video editing, textbook editing, online course module editing.

I did a bit of gardening until the rain made me go inside...did a bit of sewing and now I have new bedroom curtains!

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Customer service

There are a lot of things messed up about the USA. But customer service is great.

I bought a hammock & stand for our backyard, and it arrived with a broken hammock bar. I ordered a replacement hammock and I got send another entire set!

I bet I can make a new wood bar....so that gives me 2 hammocks for the price of one!

Ivy had a soccer tryout at a club 1+ hour away. They arrived 10 minutes early...and no one was there. Apparently they cancelled the tryouts and forgot to tell Eric! (Maybe due to the heat? Both Inga and Dio had indoor practice because it was a "condition red" day today and too hot for outdoor practice.)

Ivy decided to stay in 8th grade and not move up to high school. Lots of going back and forth but unless she really truly wanted to move up a grade, we didn't want to push her.

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It's hard to wrap my head around school already being started! And all 3 kids have soccer practice right after school, so they don't get home until 6 pm.

I'm redecorating my bedroom a bit. I don't want to repaint the walls, but I'm changing out the bedspreads, curtains, and lamps and painting the side tables. I had a bedspread that I sewed about 15 years ago and I've had to repair it a few times. It's ripped so many times now that it's time to retire :)

Lots of video editing today. Always something to keep me on my toes!

Our amazing repair guy / brick mason / handyman is starting work on the carriage house. Plumbing and electric is the first order of business. There's just one more wall to frame. Then inspections...then insulation and wall finishing.

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I love Midwestern rainstorms! Dark skies, thunder and lightning, rivers of rain going down the streets.

 
I had grand plans to weed the gardens but the rain got in the way. Instead, we did some attic organizing, going through boxes in our storage closet, organizing the kids' memorabilia, and throwing away or donating things we no longer needed.

What does everyone do with memorabilia going back to childhood? I suppose I could digitize some things, but that's not always realistic with objects that aren't just papers. Eric and I each have a few boxes of things from childhood, anywhere from journals to boy/girl scout badges to photos pre-digital cameras.

It was fun to pull these old things out. It's amazing how much you forget about your own life.

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I haven't gone this long between journaling since well before Covid! Life has been busy with our trans-Atlantic migration, family reunion at my parent's cabin in northern Wisconsin, a rental car that blew its transmission and left us stranded in rural Wisconsin, a short say at my parent's house in Minnesota, and then a long drive back to Indiana.

Zari is working in Nice for the rest of the summer. She has part-time work as a bicycle tour guide, plus she's managing Le Chateau for 1-2 week HomeExchange stays and also renting out the other 2 bedrooms via Airbnb to families. She's also doing most of the painting in the building staircase.

But even with all that, she has lots of free time and I think is a bit lonely and bored. We have long video chats every day. She has found some great things treasure hunting (really nice tempered glass dive mask) plus lots of the usual items: sunglasses, underwear, shoes, goggles.

School starts next Wednesday, and then life will be on fast forward between school and soccer and all the other things that suck up our time here.

We hadn't been to my parent's house for something like 12 years, I think. I was amazed to see their deck and patio. All growing up, we never had a deck in the backyard--there was just a 6-foot dropoff if you dared to open up the back door. Finally they built it 30 years after building their house!

The gardens have always been amazing but seriously I think they up their game every year. Between the landscaping and flowers, the fruit trees and bushes, the massive vegetable garden, and the lawn where not a single blade of grass is in the wrong place...it's paradise.

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Life has accelerated, between the kids finishing school, nonstop guests, nonstop illness in at least one member of the family at any given time, and packing up for the annual Freeze Family Migration. We leave in 36 hours!!

Inga's best friend and her mom have been visiting for the past 2 weeks, from our town in the US. It's been lots of fun--she's basically another Freeze child, as we like to joke.

Anyway we're alive, if not completely healthy...

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College roommate reunion

My roommate from my 5-month study abroad in Jerusalem came and visited with her husband and 17-year-old daughter. I hadn't seen her since Dio was a baby, and before that not since we were in undergraduate! It was fun to catch up on life after all these years.

They left late last night and Inga's best friend and her mom are coming tomorrow for 2 weeks. Then we leave for the States! It's going to be a crazy few weeks.

Ivy got a voice lesson from her and had a severe case of the giggles! She could hardly sing.

Last night I wasn't feeling well around 10 pm and by time I got in bed, I had a high fever. I was super sick all night, so much that I couldn't sleep. I stayed up reading until about 4:30 am and finally got about 4 hours of sleep.

Eric is sick, too, but with a cough rather than a fever.

Somehow I kept going today and even did a lot of video editing. It actually helps to keep busy to stay distracted from feeling sick and tired.

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I've been off the radar for the past few weeks between running a breech retreat, then a breech workshop, then getting on an airplane and presenting two skills workshops at ICM in Lisbon, Portugal. Then I came home and got sick!

Dio and Inga have their big exams tomorrow: the bac de français oral for Dio and the brevet for Inga.

I managed to play for a marriage proposal in Eze. Can't let life get too boring, right?

 

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Soccer Saturday!

Eric and Inga left early this morning for an all-day tournament in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat . Eric came back mid-day to bring Ivy to her game in Cannes, then they went back to watch Inga's last game. Her team played 5 games and Inga scored 5 goals! Ivy's team lost 2-1 after being ahead 1-0 for all but the last 5 minutes.

I've been getting ready for the upcoming breech retreat next week. The first two guests arrived today and one more is coming this evening (I'm hosting them in the two apartments downstairs).

Zari has her first yacht job tomorrow! It's just one day but still--very exciting. She's helping out on a boat going to/from Saint-Jean and Monaco during the Grand Prix. She was told to wear a standard yachting uniform--skirt and white polo--so we went shopping today. While we were at Decathlon, I also bought her 2 pairs of hiking pants and new running shoes.

She's nervous because she doesn't know what to expect. But the person hiring her knows that she's new and I figure that they'll tell her what she needs to do! It's a fairly small boat and from what she's been told so far, she will mainly be there to greet guests and assist the captain.

My brother left yesterday and is visiting Paris for a few days before he goes home. He's single and available if there are any older men interested 🙂 Every year the goal is to find him a "sexy French boyfriend."

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Violin repair, Ivy is back!

My violin's fingerboard is touching the body of the violin, which is not good! I don't know how long it's been doing it, but the strings are super far away from the fingerboard ("la touche") and I don't remember it being like that last year.

I brought it to a local luthier. He was really puzzled because there's no cracking or loosening that would explain why it's happening. He did find some other areas of the violin that had come unglued, so he fixed that. I have to bring it back after he gets back from vacation to fix the fingerboard issue. It involves a bit of major surgery but he's very good and very affordable.

His shop was stuffed full of violins, violas, cellos, half-made instruments tucked in every shelf or corner, violin cases piled 4 high and 4 deep. And a very cute cat that let me pet it for a bit.

Ivy came back from a week-long "classe verte." Right after getting off the bus, she said, "Can I go back?" She loved it! They had lights out at 9:30 pm with pretty strict rules about going to bed. As a result, she said she slept super well and always woke up spontaneously at 6 am.

I did some sanding and priming in the staircase and got Zari to do a bit as well.

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Last uncle day and a no from the police

My brother leaves tomorrow...our local ice cream shop will miss him. I don't even know how many times he's taken the family out for ice cream! We said that next year we should create a bingo card for all of the flavors at the store (close to 100) and see if we can come close to filling it.

Zari's friend and I made lemon cheesecake today. Zari was going to help but we had some free time while she was at a job interview.

Speaking of which...she got called for an interview for a job working as an assistant to the police (patrolling on bike)...and once she got there, they realized she wasn't a French citizen and were sad to have to tell her no! They were super excited about having someone bilingual and I think they would have given her the job.

So no police career for Zari in France :(

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Storm and sunset

We had a huge thunderstorm roll through this afternoon, making it feel like late evening. I love hearing the rain and thunder with the windows open...

It cleared up in the evening, with a gorgeous sunset. Zari kept stopping to ask me to take pictures. Of course they look even more stunning in real life.

Zari has an interview for a police job she applied for! It would be full-time in July and August, serving as an assistant to the municipal police, patrolling mainly on bike. Hopefully she makes the next cut. It's this Thursday. She's also been doing training for the bike tour company, which at the moment means going on the tours to learn the routes and the scripts.

I've made great progress towards getting German citizenship by declaration, and I've confirmed that my grandmother's case falls within the requirements! I have someone who is helping us fill out all of the applications, which we hope to send off in the next 2 months. This means me and all 4 kids could become German citizens!

When I started taking German in 9th grade, with my classroom name Gitta (a shortened form of my grandmother Brigitta), I never imagined I could actually become German! Thank you to the 2021 amendments to the German Nationality Act (StAG)!

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Classe verte

Ivy left this morning for a week-long trip in the mountains with her school class. It's called "classe verte" (green class). She's rooming with her 3 best friends; they even bought matching pajamas for the trip.

She called me this afternoon during the few minutes of phone time they get every day (from a friend's phone--she doesn't have one): "Hi mama, I wanted to let you know that I'm not dead and I'm having a great time. Okay, I have to go, bye!"

Now that Dio's and Inga's schools have had the "conseil de classe" and given out final grades, very few students keep attending. Dio is going just to his specialty classes plus French. It's a weird system because school doesn't get out until July but essentially learning ends at the end of May, since most students stop going to class as soon as grades are posted. Why don't they either do grades until the end or just actually end school earlier?

I was up early this morning so I went for a run rather than trying to get back to sleep.

Zari got called for the next round of interviews for a job with the municipal police. She's super excited. It would be full-time in July and August and much of it on bike. She's also going to be leading bike tours part-time starting in a few weeks. Not as ideal as having a full-time job right away...but she's making progress.

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Inga and Eric came back from Poland yesterday, only to turn around straight from the airport and head to another soccer game! Ivy joined Inga's U15 team and they scored 3 goals between the two of them, for a win 5-2. This win means their team moves up to regionals next year!

We had a relaxing day today, with some time at the beach and then making homemade pasta with my brother. We went for an evening walk to the port to fill up our water bottles with sparkling water. I got in over 17,000 steps. Not bad for a relaxing day!

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Morning run-swim with my brother, Zari, and Dio. My brother said, "During the run I was hating my life but now I'm loving my life" (as we're floating in the sea post-run).

Inga had her 2nd friendly match versus Poland; she played in the first half, which ended 0-0. Her team scored 4 goals in the second half!

Dinner was shrimp, salmon croquettes, fries, and sauteed green beans, with some fancy cream puffs for dessert that a friend dropped off as a thank you for lending her air mattresses. My brother also treated the kids out to ice cream later in the evening! We all walked to the beach to enjoy the ice cream and moonlight. It was truly magical with the full moon sparkling on the water.

Zari's friend from Toronto arrived early this morning around 4 am. She's super nice and we're thrilled to host her for the week!

I took some head shots of Zari for her CV and yacht applications. They turned out pretty well!

Eric and Inga fly back to Nice tomorrow and then turn around immediately to drive to Hyères for a soccer game! I'm the backup driver in case Eric's flight is delayed.

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