Friday, June 3

Nothing is planned for today, so it's expected to be another lazy day. Actually, the other family in our hotel has a couple members leaving, but we figured they'd probably be laying low, resting up for the dad and daughter trek around the world.

I got up a little earlier than usual. At about 4AM I checked in with work. I usually check my e-mail and occasionally try to IM some of the co-workers, especially if there's something in the e-mail. Yesterday I couldn't check my e-mail through the client's website, evidently locking my account. I had sent an e-mail to the boss asking him to ask the network police to unlock my account, but hadn't heard back. I saw my developer was online, so I asked him if he could ping on my behalf, which he was happy to do. Back in e-mail, I saw that I'd missed a meeting invite for a meeting I wouldn't have attended anyway, and a little back and forth with the “old” group that maintains the bit of software we're rewriting.

My developer and I chatted about the way things were going, some recent changes, and some design thoughts. He suggested there were some changes to the code base that I might want to take a look at, just to stay on top of things. I tried getting the company VPN working, but something with the way the Internet works here made that a big fail. I wrote a big “no can do” e-mail about it, with as much detail as I could work up. After I sent an e-mail, which worked out to be about as long as these daily recaps, I considered that it's probably the case that either the WiFi access point I'm connected to, the single-point Internet connection for the whole country, or something in the middle just doesn't have the VPN power to handle enough (or any) connections.

I then chatted a bit with my replacement and boss. Nothing needed my help, but they appreciated that I checked-in, and hoped I'd continue to do so. I am apparently adding value as a sounding board, and there's value in keeping me informed so I can just jump back in when I return. In the end, I worked a few hours before the girls got out of bed.

We headed downstairs for a quick breakfast, and managed to get some banana pancakes. They were indeed yummy. Claire got a short stack, with bacon, and I got a full stack, with bacon. While more than a third more in dollars, the short stack was two cakes, while the tall was only three. Additionally, Claire didn't finish hers, and I felt I had too much when I finished mine. We decided we could probably get away with sharing a full order.

Just moments after we ordered our cakes, the other mother and her schoolgirl popped in. The boys were still sleeping, but the girls wanted a little breakfast. They didn't get the banana pancakes, though. After everyone had finished breakfast, we took a pass to the beach so the schoolgirl could look for some shells.

Finishing our beach adventure, Clair and I tripped to the Copy Master store across the street. I had thought someone said there was a post office branch there, but I was either mistaken about the location (probably), I misunderstood the location (also quite probable), or some combination of the two. The store we stopped into is a mini office supply store, filled with various types of papers, pens, and other office sundry. We looked at a couple maps they had, one of the world, and one of the U.S., thinking to give them to our birthmother, so she can better grok literally where we're coming from. They were bigger posters than we were looking for, so we decided to put them off until we knew better if they were necessary, or even the only ones available.

Claire's also been looking for a place to print photos. In another part of the building, there's more of a copy-center part of the Copy Master store. She went there, but Grace had begun to have enough of supply shopping, so we left Claire to her quest and returned home for a fresh diaper and bottle of mid-morning snack.

Grace slept pretty much all day long. She'd wake suddenly, sometimes crying, sometimes must cranky, because her wet diaper bothered her, or because she wanted another bottle, but then she'd fall right off.

Claire spent most of the day doing things on the PC. Updating her blog and answering e-mail, I guess. She did very much appreciate my tip about opening the e-mail, logging off, typing her e-mail response, logging back on, and sending it. She'd been trying to conserve time, and it was frustrating her to have to be so terse all of the time. Freed of the time monitor, she was able to be as verbose as she wanted, which made her a bit happy.

We already do this for our blog posts, typing off-line (in LibreOffice), and then connecting to copy-paste our text to the blog editors. LibreOffice is quite spectacular for this need, as it's really primitive word processing anyway, but at the same time has some nice auto-completion features, which helps reduce spelling errors. It does, much like the iPhone/iPad, offer some interesting corrections, the best of which is “well-cheesed.” Typing the word “well” will bring up that suggestion. It also does a lot of abutting words in interesting patterns.

I sat on the sofa, occasionally rising to stretch my legs, tending to Grace in her moments of needs, and watching subtitled movies on television. After re-watching The Banger Sisters, the other family knocked on our door. Dad and schoolgirl were getting ready to go, and they wanted to say their “glad to meet yous.” We wished them safe travels, promised to take care of mom, and told other dad to behave for the schoolgirl on the plane and in the airports. They were getting a ride from the other family, from the other hotel, so we knew unless we followed in a taxi there wouldn't be room for us.

It was starting to get late, but just about as soon as they left we trekked to the restaurant for some dinner. We decided on pizza. Claire got a little salad, and I asked for an appetizer of garlic bread. The pizza arrived first. The garlic bread arrived when the pizza was nearly finished, along with my first refill of iced tea. They were a little out of sorts in the restaurant as there was a large party coming in. The party didn't arrive until we were nearly done with our food, but there was obvious flitting about.

We returned to the room, put Grace in her bed, and settled in for another pair of episodes, finishing the first disk in the series. We also noticed there was another set of extras; cut family interviews. The show has a mock reality feel to it, where the various scenes are interspersed with the ubiquitous interview of characters.

After a good time chuckling, we turned in. Nearly immediately, Grace wanted a little attention. She needed a diaper change, and then crashed again. Then she needed to be held, and then crashed again. She repeated the cycle of needing something small for about an hour after Claire went to bed, finally allowing me to go to bed.

In the morning, Claire told me that about a half hour after I'd gone to bed, she stirred one more time and wanted a bottle. I hadn't noticed.