brush your teeth

I don't even really know what happened today...it was a long day, but still good. We just did a lot. Emmanuelle was supposed to call last night to set up something for us to do today. She never called, so at our usual time of 10 AM meeting her, we didn't know what to do. We sat in the room, did nothing. Finally after over an hour we decided to go to the pool. It turns out that Emmanuelle's daughter was in the hospital today, and maybe for a few days. She called and apologized to us; I told her she did not need to apologize for taking care of her daughter. Hopefully that will be over soon and her daughter will be healthy again soon.

She did manage to tell us that we got a good judge. Apparently, judge #4 is a good one. Fast and on task, according to our lawyer. We took this as good news and are hoping that our stuff goes through court quickly. We have fun here, but home is always nicer...

So Shirley and I spent quite a bit of time at the pool today. She and I had quite a bit of fun playing around, jumping into the water, and avoiding the hotel room. She is getting more brave every day, and I am suspecting that she will actually take the plunge in the deeper end before too long. We decided to keep the boys out (no problem for Juan) for today, so they played on the side for about an hour before heading back to the room for lunch and a nap. Janine said that she got them down with little trouble. Shirley and I stayed at the pool for lunch and more fun in the water. One of the waitresses here tried to convince Shirley to get out into the deep end for about fifteen minutes. Alas, no go for Shirley, although the two are now seemingly friends.

After over-exerting myself swimming back and forth, we decided to come back to the room and wait for the boys to wake up. After they woke up, we went for a walk to the store. I found it to be much quicker when you actually know where you are going, which is very nice. We spent time looking around at different things, enjoying a slightly more relaxed pace (we still wanted to beat nightfall, for obvious reasons). We got most everything we went for, specifically two sets of goggles for the water. Shirley first didn't want some the other day, but now, after becoming more brave, she is ready. So we searched around for quite some time trying to find goggles, finally spotting a Speedo store that carried them after wandering back and forth on skyways between the three buildings that make up this strange shopping center. Our trip back was quick, as we were getting thirsty and dinner was approaching.

Upon our return we went to dinner and enjoyed our nightly hike around the pool before retiring to our current environs. Andres freaked out at bed time tonight, but finally calmed down enough to breathe normally and laugh a little bit as I peppered him and Juancho with kisses. I have to say that it is difficult to not know why a child is crying and to be of little help. Hopefully when I am holding him I am more help than I know or that I think I am. It is difficult and frustrating, though. I scared Shirley tonight, too, as we told her several times that she needed to quiet down and settle down a bit. After she continued escalate her volume and continued to play around with the boys as we tried to settle them down, I said in a loud, stern voice, "Shirley! No mas!" and clapped my hands. She knew that I was not happy with her behavior and was a little scared of my sternness. She sulked away. After I got the boys into the room, Janine and I reassured her that everything was okay, that we still love her, and that she was alright, but that she needs to listen when Mami and Papi tell her something. She responded well to that and was laughing and joking minutes later. I still feel bad for scaring her, though. I know that I can look mean sometimes, and I am afraid that I did to her at that moment.

Now, though, it is quiet. Everyone else is asleep, and I am very tired. I am only awake right now because of the Duke/Carolina game that I am following on the internet. There are very few games that I MUST SEE during the year, but I must see at least one Duke/NC game. This is not the one, as it is not televised down here. I have 17 channels of soccer, but no Duke/NC. Whatever. I will watch their meeting in Chapel Hill in a couple of weeks. I used to tape as many of these games as I could, as it is my favorite rivalry, and watch them over and over.

ERIC: Do you remember the Robert Brickey dunk from 1988? Or Hubert Davis' 34 points in Cameron in 1992?

yeah, I am a UNC nerd, for sure. Ever since J.R. Reid was not living up to his potential in Chapel Hill. My all time five: PG...Derrick Phelps...he could play through anything...and often did.
SG...Donald Williams...purest shooter I have ever seen at NC
SF...Jerry Stackhouse...awesome, simply awesome
PF...Antwan Jamison...wasn't supposed to be as good as he was
C...J.R. Reid...maybe he didn't live up to his potential, but he was good

Well, Duke is up 54-52...I better go...

I hope all is well, kids. Don't stay up too late and remember to...

brush your teeth, floss your teeth, floss your teeth, brush your teeth...