We’re lucky that Kiddo is a very good traveler, but I have to say that it’s just recently that we’ve been able to really enjoy seeing the sights with her. When she was a baby, traveling involved trying to do some of the things we wanted to do and packing enough food, baby gear and toys/distractions to keep her occupied while we did it. (And we did a lot of it. She had stamps from four countries in her passport before she was a year old.)

Now, though, she’s really excited about seeing and exploring new places and things herself and it’s really fun to see and experience things we enjoy through her eyes. This was her first trip to the ocean (that she was aware enough to notice) and first time swimming in a swimming pool, among other things. She had a blast just watching the tugs and container ships travel up the Savannah River across the street from our hotel.

I’ll post more about what we did later in case anyone else is headed south with a two-year-old in tow. Savannah and Hilton Head, SC are fabulous family vacations.

There are a lot of times and places where I’ve complained (and probably will complain) about The Spouse’s tendency to accumulate electronic equipment, and his enduring loyalty to same. (Examples: the two tons of stereo surround-sound that are attached to our television; the eleventy thousand pieces of computer paraphernalia—working and not—crammed in the home office…See, I told you!).

If you are currently dating or considering getting serious with someone of the engineer persuasion with similar habits, you might find this annoying. One day, while listening to a 15-minute discourse on the attributes of, say, a particular brand of carafe coffee pot because it keeps coffee warmer longer and without requiring the electronic base to remain on, thus scalding the coffee and ruining the flavor, you might be thinking, ‘Really, is it that big a deal?’

But, I tell you now, there will come a time on, say, a Sunday morning, when you will be exhausted from taking care of a sick and cranky toddler. When you will realize that you are in the middle of an unprecedented hour or so of free time to relax and read a book,* that the only thing that would make this hour more perfect were if you could have a second cup of coffee. Yet, you brewed that coffee like six hours ago and the pot long ago switched itself off. You could brew another one, or reheat a cup in the microwave (both of which might wake the baby). You hesitate, decide it’s worth the risk, and then pour a cup from the carafe to find that, lo, it is *still* hot—at 11:45! All ready to go.

And, if you are anything like me, you will think, “I loooovee thiiis maaaaan!!’ and start looking for a couch to jump up and down on.

I mean, I know I should love him because he kind, and stable, held my hand (and the bedpan) through 12 hours of labor; he’s a great father (see that footnote thing), and attentive husband, and because of that one time he decided to take a crack at fixing the broken central air unit after we got a $800 repair estimate—and he actually fixed the broken air conditioner unit**, etc., etc. But I truly thought, at that moment, that if he hadn’t ever done anything else for me besides by that damn coffee pot, it would totally be worth marrying him for.

*Because that same dude is good at getting her down for a nap, even when she’s way overtired and screaming like she’s possessed by the devil.

**I know, right? That was so awesome I still impressed  four years later. But, yeah, I still like the coffee pot more. What can I say? I’m shallow and self-centered.

When we moved back from Korea, we deliberately chose this neighborhood for its relative pedestrian-friendliness. There are two grocery stores, lots of restaurants, dry cleaners’, drug store, package store (!!) and coffee shops within reasonable walking distance. Playgrounds, preschools, and other things for The Kid are a different story and I’d planned to schedule some of these options one or two mornings and get by with hanging out in the ‘hood the rest of the time.

That’s not to be. Since we really like that The Spouse has a job that pays our bills and puts a roof over our head, I’ll refrain from expounding on the irony that this particular company in this particular industry does not support telecommuting.*
Or, actually, I should say it does support it in certain situations.

When he needs to be on a conference call with colleagues in East Asia at 10 p.m. local time (a regular occurrence), telecommuting works just fine. Or, working a full day at the office and then being on call for Asia-Pac technical support issues from 6 p.m. to midnight. They’re all, ‘Isn’t technology wonderful?!‘ Don’t get me started on the Blackberry.

They also have no issue with people working from home if they’re expecting an important package from FedEx (say, the latest edition of City of Heroes) or having work done on the house. But, raise the issue of a regular schedule and they start hemming and hawing and getting all twitchy, channeling Boomhauer (“didn’t used to need no dingdang telecommunistating…” mumble, mumble)  and it’s just not worth it.

So yeah, why did we even go there?

For what it’s worth, we’re hoping to acquire another diesel, this one a few years’ old, that will run on biodiesel. Before we moved overseas, we had a primarily biodiesel-fueled 2005 VW Beetle TDI that worked like a dream.  We hope to do the same with our new Jetta once the issues with the new 50-state compliant VW TDI engine are better understood.

*For anyone wondering, I’ll be answering the ‘Why can’t we just take MARTA?’ question in a whole other post.