It's a Christmas Miracle!!

OK. So I haven't written in a while. Thank you, to those of you who care, and check on me. -And thank you, to those of you who care enough to nag me about it. I promised Chip that I would start writing blog entries again today, and so I will. Lots of things have happened since July, when last I wrote. We had visitors stay at our apartment every weekend (except four) this summer, and it was great. (I will post some of the summer highlights, as they come up.) We had a pretty great fall. Both Sebastien and I were super busy. I took a beginner's French class, signed up for singing classes (but didn't finish them), got back into spin classes, and worked with Seb and Sarah on an architecture competition (it is ongoing), designing an internet and computer education center in Kenya ( http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge ).

About a month ago, I started working on a new project at work that is also a competition. This one is designing a hospital in Victoria, BC. We were shortlisted, which means there are only two other teams working on it too. It is pretty interesting, because the project deals with what is called a "P3," a "Public Private Partnership." This sort of situation has become very popular in Canada for the construction of hospitals. What it means is that a development team, and their financiers work with the architects and the hospital groups (doctors, nurses, maintenance, etc.) to design a building that the government leases from the investors for 30 years. If it sounds confusing, it is. Basically, the government can't afford to do so many big projects, so private owners build the buildings, and run the businesses for a given amount of time. After that time has passed, the government takes over the lease, and once again owns the hospitals. I can't tell you about our specific competition entry, because it is a competitive market, and I have been sworn to secrecy. After working as much as I have, however, on this project (about 60 hours per week), I was ready for a vacation.



SO, for the past 6 years or more (give or take a year), I housesat every Christmas, for Todd and Tamara, my wonderful friends who lived in Portland. Many things happened in that house. I had some really wonderful times at their house (Sarah Schreiber's wedding, watching Pride and Prejudice with T&T, snuggling with Tiger and Roberta, leaving for various trips from their house, and my first Christmas with Sebastien, to name a few), as well as some difficult times (breaking my wrist, for one, and Tiger getting very mad at me and deciding to poo in the center of the dining room table, for another). For years, on Christmas Day, I have talked to Todd and Tamara on the phone, at their house in Portland, and every year they say, "You should definitely come to the ranch in Colorado sometime for Christmas!" Well, this past year, around the same time that we moved to South Africa, they moved to Colorado. That made it a lot harder to see them on a regular basis, and so I said, "we would love to!" Sebastien and I took a direct flight from Vancouver to Denver a few days ago, and met Jonas at the airport (he flew Eugene-Portland-Denver), and there, at the Denver airport, were Todd and Tamara waiting to pick us up. It was that easy! We stayed in Boulder (at their new house) for the first night, and then drove to a tiny town called "Rye" the next next morning at 7:am, to come to the ranch. More on that tomorrow (I need to go to bed). Here are some pictures though: