Hello, May

I promised my sister-in-law a blog post by Friday.

I almost kept it. If you are up very, very late on Friday night in Washington state, you might read this before you consider it Saturday, even though it technically is Saturday.

Sorry, Naomi. Better late than not at all, though, right?

Also, sorry April. Even when we are lax in the blogging department, we usually manage one a month. So what happened during April that kept us away from our blog?

At the end of March, just after back-to-back visits from my sister, Amelie, and Brendan's dad, Wes, we hosted some couchsurfers for two nights. When they left, we just breathed. It was delightful and busy and socially and mentally engaging and just . . . like home, having Amelie and Wes come to visit. I wished Amelie could have stayed just a little bit longer, because the weather got warm the day, the very day, she left. Ergh.

Here's a post to come: Visit with Amelie, and pictures.

Another: Visit with Wes, and pictures.

And then we took a trip. We hitchhiked to Kampen, the Netherlands and visited our friend Anna, whom Brendan met at university. We stayed with her four nights, then hitchhiked Düsseldorf, to visit our couchsurfing friends Anja and Tini. We stayed with them two nights, then took a Schöneswochenende ticket back to Magdeburg. That's another post to come, in which we detail some of the happy happenings and dumb decisions that come along with hitchhiking.

We got home and breathed some more.

I've dedicated myself to writing. For long years I've considered myself a writer, but I haven't produced much. Well, that's just silly. So now I'm writing every day. I'm currently following Stephen King's advice in On Writing and meeting a word count every day. I started with 1000 words, what he recommends for the beginning writer, upped it two weeks later to 1500 words, and starting tomorrow won't stop writing until I've hit 2000. That's what Stephen King says is his target limit for each day. So, wow! I'll be writing as much as Stephen King!

Brendan discovered a new love while we were in Kampen: animating. Here are the videos he made in two days of working in Anna's studio:




We're working on getting the materials and space he needs to continue animating here in Magdeburg.

Thanks for reading, family and friends, and thanks for the bugs to write more. It lets us know you are reading. Promised posts soon to come. Promise.