Daley Ponderings

Noah (while we started the woodstove): Can fire do anything to metal? Dad: It can melt it, if it is hot enough. Noah (wide-eyed): So, you could melt the metal into a sword? Noah then relays the conversation to Jonathan, who is taking a bath. After some discussion about where one might get... (More)

We arrived at the Fitzkees' house on Thursday night, and Nick said we could stay as long as we wanted.  We ended up extending our trip by a day and coming home on Tuesday, which was a good decision.  I think we spent the right amount of time for the whole family to enjoy the... (More)

Noah has discovered convertibles and really wants one.  In a parking lot one day, we watched a man put up his roof and that was really cool.  When I explained the reasons we wouldn't get one (too expensive, not enough seats for our family) Jonathan decided on our next car.  A... (More)

I've noticed the "kids" at church (in quotes, since folks are quite sure where to place me, the "adults" say I'm a kid, and the "kids" say I'm adult (I think primarily since I'm married and have kids of my own)) hug more than I am used to, and I had internally... (More)

I haven't looked at how much time it took us to do taxes this year - I thought we were doing pretty well, time-wise, until we blew 8 hours or so today finishing them off (or is it them finishing us off, I'm not sure which...) I noticed a number of places where the strange, complicated... (More)

 I've been mentioning my garden doings on Serina's blog and in private emails with her, and I thought I'd compile and post the relevant info here. March 15: Whoohoo! I just placed my order with fedco , and we’ve been preparing our squares out front. Jon just... (More)

We skipped the four month appointment because we were in Switzerland, but six months came quickly enough.  At 27.5" long and 16.8lb, she is 50% in weight but 95% in height! Dr.Anderson wondered if we weighed her correctly, but he said when he saw her he had no concerns about her... (More)

While looking at a dollar coin, Jonathan said, "I think it has a picture of Obama or something", (really, it's Andrew Jackson). "Switzerland laughs and American laughs are the same; only the language is different.  I made my silly face at people in Switzerland, and they laughed like a... (More)

Mydad had mentioned a news article story a month ago about some company charging a whole bunch of people $.01 each on their credit cards; presumably with the thought that no one would complain about a $.01 charge, and since they charged a million people or something, they made a bunch of... (More)

Very early in the morning, we got up, had breakfast and said goodbye to Sarah (all the other Dutlers said goodbye the night before.) Janet and Stephan came to pick us up and we crammed all ourselves and stuff into the mini-minivan. They took us to the Basel airport where we spent quite... (More)

We missed our intended tram for the morning, but the next one got us to church just barely in time.  In fact, we met the Dutlers coming up the sidewalk.  It was nice to visit Janet's church.  This is, in fact, where she met Stephan.  Jon told Jonathan he could go to Sunday School if he... (More)

In the morning we once again took an early tram to the train station. This time we boarded the train by ourselves and rode to Bern. As soon as we got off, we were greeted by Reto, “You must be the Daleys!” Reto is a programmer that Jon met through the LifeType project. He... (More)

Once again we took an early tram to thetrain station, meeting Janet and Stephan there. Then we rode to Zurich and the first thing we did was walk to the historical museum. We saw ancient gold, medieval and more modern weapons, and costumes, elaborately panelled rooms, banners and medals from... (More)

I was in need of a break from sightseeing and catching trams and we were out of clean clothes.  Jon started a wash as soon as we got up.  I asked him about his eye and he said it felt fine.  Praise God! We hung around, took naps, read, and checked on laundry.  The washer takes two... (More)

We intended to get up early and go back to Richard's to finish vacuuming and do a wash (Wednesday - Mittwoch - being his assigned wash day.) However, we spent a while eating breakfast with our hosts.  It turned out that Richard had come home late the night before so he had started a wash first... (More)